
Pass Cj{ 2-2 5 

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LITTLE MASTERPIECES OF SCIENCE 



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Little Masterpieces 
of Science 

Edited by George lies 



EXPLORERS 

w 



Christopher Columbus Charles Wilkes 
Lewis and Clarke Clarence King 

Zebulon M. Pike John Wesley Powell 



t&P 



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NEW YORK 

DOUBLED AY, PAGE & COMPANY 



1902 



Cj^« 



THE LliRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two COP4E8 RecSJVED 

SEP. m 1902 

GoPVRfcHT ENTRY 

CLASS <^ XXo. NO. 

COW 3. ' 



Copyright, 1902, by Doubleday, Page & Co. 

Copyright, 1891, by Justin Winsor 
Copyright, 1871, by Oliver Wendell Holmes 



PREFACE 

" Peace hath her victories 
No less renown' d than war." 

The love of adventure, the expectation of the 
unexpected, have ever prompted men stout of 
heart, and ready of resource, to brave the perils 
of wilderness and sea that they might set their 
feet where man never trod before. The world 
owes much to the explorers who have faced hos- 
tile savages, stood in jeopardy from the cobra 
and the lion, the foes as deadly which lurk in the 
brook which quenches thirst. A traveller like 
Clarke takes his life in his hands. He breaks 
a path which leads he knows not whither: it may 
bring him to a shore whence he has no ship 
to sail from; it may end in an abyss he cannot 
bridge. The thickets rend and sting him, poison 
may colour a tempting grain or berry, frost may 
deaden his energies and lull him to the sleep that 
knows no waking. He has but little aid from 
science: beyond food and medicine he carries 
little more than a watch, a compass, a rifle, 
and a cartridge belt. Beyond all instruments 
and weapons are his skill, agility, gumption, 
diplomacy. And these resources in no mean 
measure are shared by the man for whom he 
prepares the way, the immigrant, who, in the 
early days of settlement, requires a constancy 



Preface 

even higher than the explorer's own. It is one 
thing to traverse a wilderness under the excite- 
ment of hourly adventure ; it is another thing to 
stay there for a lifetime and convert it to a home. 
The race of American explorers is not extinct. 
Major Powell is with us to-day, hale and hearty 
still. Peary, in the prime of his powers, is as 
capital an example of courage and resource as 
ever threw themselves upon the riddle of the 
frozen north. Beyond the Arctic and Antarctic 
circles little remains unknown on earth. When 
at last every rood of ground and knot of sea is 
mapped and charted, whither shall the explorer 
direct his steps ? He cannot repeat the con- 
quests of Lewis and Clarke, Pike and Peary, 
but he need not on that account fold his hands 
so long as a brave heart and a quick wit are 
wanted in the world. 

George Iles 



CONTENTS 

WINSOR, JUSTIN 

Columbus Discovers America 

Embarks at Palos, August 3, 1492. A mishap befalls 
the Pinta. Sees the Peak of Teneriffe in eruption. 
Arrives at the Canaries. Falsifies his reckoning to 
conceal from his crew the length of the voyage. On 
September 13th his compass points to the true north, 
a fact without precedent. Next day a water wagtail 
is seen, betokening an approach to land. Two pelicans 
alight on board, with the same significance. These 
promises fail, and the crew becomes disheartened and 
discontented. On October nth Columbus sees a light, 
presumably on shore: four hours later, next day, land 
is descried and named by Columbus San Salvador. 
Discussion as to where this place is: the balance of 
probability inclines to Watling's Island. ..... 3 

LEWIS AND CLARKE 

Arrival at the Pacific Ocean, 1805 

Descent of the last rapid of the Columbia River, Novem- 
ber 2. A feast of wappatoo root. Meet unfriendly 
Indians. Observe Mount St. Helen, of Vancouver, 
about ninety miles off. The country fertile and delight- 
ful, abounding with game. The ocean suddenly ap- 
pears. Rough weather and its effects. Friendly 
Indians bring food. Rain ruins merchandise, clothing 
and food. Thievish Indians are withstood. The 
journey comes successfully to an end . ... 29 

vii 



Contents 

PIKE, ZEBULON M. 

The Sources of the Mississippi, 1806 

Meets friendly Indians and whites. A serious fire. 
Deep snow inflicts severe hardship. A trackless jour- 
ney ends in safety and a hospitable welcome. Pro- 
visions exorbitant in price. A march on snowshoes. 
Sleds of native pattern are made. Delay through 
water on the ice. Bitter cold and the curse of solitude. 
A dismal swamp. Unfriendly Indians and the pur- 
chasing power of whiskey. The main source of the 
Mississippi comes into view. Disabled by excessive 
exertion. Hoists the flag. Visits of Indian chiefs. . 55 

WILKES, CHARLES 
Manila in 1842 

Character of the city Spanish and Oriental: numerous 
canals. A strange and motley population, the artisans 
for the most part Chinese. Malays and Chinese live 
apart. Much evidence of volcanic activity in the 
Philippines. Natural resources abundant. Primitive 
tools cause much waste of labour. The buffalo as a 
draught animal. Rice the staple diet: defective mode 
of culture. Hemp, its growth and manufacture. 
Crops of coffee, sugar and cotton. The ravages of 
locusts. Geography of the country and the diverse 
elements of its population. Its army of about 6,ooo. 
Frequent rebellions among the troops and tribes. 
Iron rule of the Government. The market-place a 
scene of unending interest. Excellent poultry. The 
environs of Manila delightful. ... .... 71 

KING, CLARENCE 

The Ascent of Mount Tyndall 

An eight hours' climb over ridges of granite and snow. 
'Shall we ascend Mount Tyndall?" "Why not? " 
viii 



Contents 



At first Professor Brewer believes the attempt madness, 
but yields consent at last. The climb begins and 
steadily increases in difficulty. A gulf of 5,000 feet 
in depth. A night's lodging in a granite crevice. 
Rocks of many tons strike near. The galling pain of 
heavy burdens. A profound chasm is crossed on a 
rope. Exhilaration of utmost peril. A small bush 
ensures salvation. A welcome stretch of trees and 
flowers. A spire, all but perpendicular, of rock and ice 
is surmounted, and at last is reached the crest of Mount 
Tyndall 97 

POWELL, JOHN WESLEY 

The Grand Canon of the Colorado Is 
Explored 

Embarkation under cliffs 4,000 feet high. A swift 
run ends in a descent of eighty feet in one-third of a 
mile. Breakers render a boat unmanageable. Walls 
more than a mile high. The baffling waters capsize a 
boat. Relics of ancient dwelling-places. Rations 
destroyed by wet. Clothing lost and blankets scarce. 
Grand views not fully enjoyed. A wild run through 
ten miles of rapids. In places the rocks so cut by 
water that it is impossible to see overhead. Great 
amphitheatres, half-dome shaped. Mammoth springs 
of lime-laden waters. An ancient lava-bed channelled 
out. Stolen squashes provide a feast. Difficulties 
thicken: is it wise to go on? Three of the party say 
no, the remainder proceed. All but lost in a whirlpool. 
Emergence from the Grand Canon in safety and joy. 131 



EXPLORERS 



COLUMBUS DISCOVERS AMERICA 

Justin Winsor 

[Part of Chapter IX., "The Final Agreement and the 
First Voyage" from "Christopher Columbus and How He 
Received and Imparted the Spirit of Discovery, " copyright 
by Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston and New York, 1892.Q 

So, everything being ready, on the 3rd of 
August, 1492, a half-hour before sunrise, he un- 
moored his little fleet in the stream, and, spread- 
ing his sails, the vessels passed out of the little 
river roadstead of Palos, gazed after, perhaps, 
in the increasing light, as the little crafts reached 
the ocean, by the friar of Rabida, from its distant 
promontory of rock. 

The day was Friday, and the advocates of 
Columbus's canonization have not failed to see 
a purpose in its choice as the day of our Redemp- 
tion, and as that of the deliverance of the Holy 
Sepulchre by Geoffrey de Bouillon, and of the 
rendition of Granada, with the fall of the Moslem 
power in Spain. We must resort to the books of 
such advocates, if we would enliven the picture 
with a multitude of rites and devotional feelings 
that they gather in the meshes of the story of 
the departure. They supply to the embarkation 
a variety of detail that their holy purposes readily 
imagine, and place Columbus at last on his poop, 
with the standard of the Cross, the image of the 
3 



Masterpieces of Science 

Saviour nailed to the holy wood, waving in the 
early breeze that heralded the day. The em- 
bellishments may be pleasing, but they are not 
of the strictest authenticity. 

In order that his performance of an embass} 7, 
to the princes of the East might be duly chron- 
icled, Columbus determined, as his journal says, 
to keep an account of the voyage by the west, 
"by which course," he says, "unto the present 
time, we do not know, for certain, that any one 
has passed. " It was his purpose to write down, 
as he proceeded, everything he saw and all that 
he did, and to make a chart of his discoveries, 
and to show the directions of his track. 

Nothing occurred during those early August 
days to mar his run to the Canaries, except the 
apprehension which he felt that an accident, 
happening to the rudder of the Pinta, — a steer- 
ing gear now for some time in use, in place of the 
old lateral blades, — was a trick of two men, her 
owners, Gomez Rascon and Christopher Ouintero, 
to impede a voyage in which they had no heart. 
The Admiral knew the disposition of these men 
well enough not to be surprised at the mishap, 
but he tried to feel secure in the prompt energy 
of Pinzon, who commanded the Pinta. 

As he passed (August 24-25, 1492) the peak 
of Teneriffe, it was the time of an eruption, 
of which he makes bare mention in his 
journal. It is to the corresponding passage of 
the Historic, [written by his son, Fernando,] 
that we owe the somewhat sensational stories 
4 



Columbus Discovers America 

of the terrors of the sailors, some of whom cer- 
tainly must long have been accustomed to like 
displays in the volcanoes of the Mediterranean. 
At the Gran Canarie the Nina was left to have 
her lateen sails changed to square ones ; and the 
Pinta, it being found impossible to find a better 
vessel to take her place, was also left to be over- 
hauled for her leaks, and to have her rudder 
again repaired, while Columbus visited Gomera, 
another of the islands. The fleet was reunited 
at Gomera on September 2. Here he fell in 
with some residents of the Ferro, the westermost 
of the group, who repeated the old stories of land 
occasionally seen from its heights, lying towards 
the setting sun. Having taken on board wood, 
water, and provisions, Columbus finally sailed 
from Gomera on the morning of Thursday, 
September 6. He seems to have soon spoken 
a vessel from Ferro, and from this he learned 
that three Portuguese caravels were lying in 
wait for him in the neighbourhood of that island, 
with a purpose, as he thought, of visiting in some 
way upon him, for having gone over to the 
interests of Spain, the indignation of the Portu- 
guese king. He escaped encountering them. 

Up to Sunday, September 9, they had ex- 
perienced so much calm, weather, that their pro- 
gress had been slow. This tediousness soon 
raised an apprehension in the mind of Columbus 
that the voyage might prove too long for the 
constancy of his men. He accordingly deter- 
mined to falsify his reckoning. This deceit was 
5 



Masterpieces of Science 

a large confession of his own timidity in dealing 
with his crew, and it marked the beginning of a 
long struggle with deceived and mutinous sub- 
ordinates, which forms so large a part of the 
record of his subsequent career. 

The result of Monday's sail, which he knew to 
be sixty leagues, he noted as forty-eight, so that 
the distance from home might appear less than 
it was. He continued to practise this deceit. 

The distances given by Columbus are those of 
dead reckoning beyond any question. Lieuten- 
ant Murdock, of the United States Navy, who 
has commented on this voyage, makes his league 
the equivalent of three modern nautical miles, 
and his mile about three-quarters of our present 
estimate for that distance. Navarrete says that 
Columbus reckoned in Italian miles, which are a 
quarter less than Spanish miles. The Admiral 
had expected to make land after sailing about 
seven hundred leagues from Ferro ; and in order- 
ing his vessels in case of separation to proceed 
westward, he warned them when they sailed 
that distance to come to the wind at night, and 
only to proceed by day. 

The log as at present understood in navigation 
had not yet been devised. Columbus depended 
in judging of his distance on the eye alone, bas- 
ing his calculations on the passage of objects or 
bubbles past the ship, while the running out of 
his hour glasses afforded the multiple for long 
distan es. 

On Thursday, the 13th of September, he notes 
6 



Columbus Discovers America 

that the ships were encountering adverse currents. 
He was now three degrees west of Flores, and the 
needle of the compass pointed as it had never 
been observed before, directly to the true north. 
His observation of this fact marks a significant 
point in the history of navigation. The polarity 
of the magnet, an ancient possession of the 
Chinese, had been known perhaps for three 
hundred years, when this new spirit of discovery 
awoke in the fifteenth century. The Indian 
Ocean and its traditions were to impart, perhaps 
through the Arabs, perhaps through the return- 
ing Crusaders, a knowledge of the magnet to the 
dwellers on the shores of the Mediterranean, and 
to the hardier mariners who had pushed beyond 
the pillars of Hercules, so that the new route to 
that same Indian Ocean was made possible in 
the fifteenth century. The way was prepared 
for it gradually. The Catalans from the port of 
Barcelona pushed out into the great Sea of Dark- 
ness under the direction of their needles, as early 
at least as the twelfth century. The pilots of 
Genoa and Venice, the hardy Majorcans and the 
adventurous Moors, were followers of almost 
equal temerity. 

A knowledge of the variation of the needle 
came more slowly to be known to the mariners 
of the Mediterranean. It had been, observed by 
Peregrini as early as 1269, but that knowledge 
of it which rendered it greatly serviceable in 
voyages does not seem to be plainly indicated 
in any of the charts of these transition centuries, 
7 



Masterpieces of Science 

till we find it laid down on the maps of Andrea 
Bianco in 1436. 

It was no new thing then when Columbus, as he 
sailed westward, marked the variation, proceed- 
ing from the northeast more and more westerly; 
but it was a revelation when he came to a position 
where the magnetic north and the north star 
stood in conjunction, as they did on this 13th of 
September, 1492. As he still moved westerly 
the magnetic line was found to move farther and 
farther away from the pole as it had before the 
13th approached it. To an observer of Colum- 
bus's quick perceptions, there was a ready guess 
to possess his mind. This inference was that 
this line of no variation was a meridian line, and 
that divergence from it east and west might have 
a regularity which would be found to furnish 
a method of ascertaining longitude far easier 
and surer than tables or water clocks. We know 
that four years later he tried to sail his ship on 
observations of this kind. The same idea seems 
to have occurred to Sebastian Cabot, when a 
little afterwards he approached and passed in a 
higher latitude, what he supposed to be the 
meridian of no variation. Humboldt is inclined 
to believe that the possibility of such a method 
of ascertaining longitude was that uncommuni- 
cable secret, which Sebastian Cabot many years 
later hinted at on his death-bed. 

The claim was made near a century later by 
Livio Sanuto in his Geographia, published at 
Venice, in 15S8, that Sebastian Cabot had been 
8 



Columbus Discovers America 

the first to observe this variation, and had ex- 
plained it to Edward VI., and that he had on a 
chart placed the line of no variation at a point 
one hundred and ten miles west of the island of 
Flores in the Azores. 

These observations of Columbus and Cabot 
were not wholly accepted during the sixteenth 
century. Robert Hues, in 1592, a hundred 
years later, tells us that Medina, the Spanish 
grand pilot, was not disinclined to believe that 
mariners saw more in it than really existed and 
that they found it a convenient way to excuse 
their own blunders. Nonius was credited with 
saying that it simply meant that worn-out mag- 
nets were used, which had lost their power to 
point correctly to the pole. Others had con- 
tended that it was through insufficient applica- 
tion of the loadstone to the iron that it was so 
devious in its work. 

What was thought possible by the early 
navigators possessed the minds of all seamen in 
varying experiments for two centuries and a half. 
Though not reaching such satisfactory results 
as were hoped for, the expectation did not prove 
so chimerical as was sometimes imagined when 
it was discovered that the lines of variation were 
neither parallel, nor straight, nor constant. The 
line of no variation which Columbus found near 
the Azores had moved westward with erratic 
inclinations, until to-day it is not far from a 
straight line from Carolina to Guinea. Science, 
beginning with its crude efforts at the hands of 



Masterpieces of Science 

Alonzo de Santa Cruz, in 1530, has so mapped 
the surface of the globe with observations of its 
multifarious freaks of variation, and the changes 
are so slow, that a magnetic chart is not a bad 
guide to-day for ascertaining the longitude in 
any latitude for a few years neighbouring to the 
date of its records. So science has come around 
in some measure to the dreams of Columbus and 
Cabot. 

But this was not the only development which 
came from this ominous day in the mid- Atlantic 
in that September of 1492. The fancy of Colum- 
bus was easily excited, and notions of a change 
of climate, and even aberration of the stars were 
easily imagined by him amid the strange phe- 
nomena of that untracked waste. 

While Columbus was suspecting that the north 
star was somewhat wilfully shifting from the 
magnetic pole, now to a distance of 5 and then 
of io°, the calculations of modern astronomers 
have gauged the polar distance existing in 1492 
at 3 28', as against the i° 20' of to-day. The 
confusion of Columbus was very like his con- 
founding an old world with a new, inasmuch as 
he supposed it was the pole star and not the 
needle which was shifting. 

He argued from what he saw, or what he 
thought he saw, that the line of no variation 
marked the beginning of a protuberance of the 
earth, up which he ascended as he sailed westerly, 
and that this was the reason of the cooler weather 
which he experienced. He never got over some 
10 



Columbus Discovers America 

notions of this kind, and he believed he found con- 
firmation of them in his later voyages. 

Even as early as the reign of Edward III. of 
England, Nicholas of Lynn, a voyager to the 
northern seas, is thought to have definitely fixed 
the magnetic pole in the Arctic regions, trans- 
mitting his views to Cnoyen, the master of the 
later Mercator, in respect to the four circumpolar 
islands, which in the sixteenth century made so 
constant a surrounding of the north pole. 

The next day (September 14) , after these mag- 
netic observations, a water wagtail was seen 
from the Nina, — a bird which Columbus thought 
unaccustomed to fly over twenty-rive leagues 
from land, and the ships were now, according to 
their reckoning, not far from two hundred leagues 
from the Canaries. On Saturday they saw a 
distant bolt of fire fall into the sea. On Sunday, 
they had a drizzling rain, followed by pleasant 
weather, which reminded Columbus of the night- 
ingales, gladdening the climate of Andalusia in 
April. They found around the ships much green 
floatage of weeds, which led them to think some 
islands must be near. Navarrete thinks there 
was some truth in this, inasmuch as the charts 
of the early part of this century represent breakers 
as having been seen in 1802, near the spot where 
Columbus can be computed to have been at this 
time. Columbus was in fact within that ex- 
tensive prairie of floating seaweed which is known 
as the Sargasso Sea, whose principal longitudinal 
axis is found in modern times to lie along the 



Masterpieces of Science 

parallel of 41 30', and the best calculations 
which can be made from the rather uncertain 
data of Columbus's journal seem to point to 
about the same position. 

There is nothing in all these accounts, as we 
have them abridged by La Casas, to indicate any 
great surprise, and certainly nothing of the over- 
whelming fear which, the Historic tells us, the 
sailors experienced when they found their ships 
among these floating masses of weeds, raising 
apprehension of a perpetual entanglement in 
their swashing folds. 

The next day (September 17) the currents 
became favourable, and the weeds still floated 
about them. The variation of the needle now 
became so great that the seamen were dismayed, 
as the journal says, and the observation being 
repeated Columbus practised another deceit 
and made it appear that there had been really 
no variation, but only a shifting of the polar star ! 
The weeds were now judged to be river weeds, 
and a live crab was found among them, — a sure 
sign of near land, as Columbus believed, or 
affected to believe. They killed a tunny and 
saw others. They again observed a water wag- 
tail, "which does not sleep at sea." Each ship 
pushed on for the advance, for it was thought 
the goal was near. The next day the Pinta shot 
ahead and saw great flocks of birds towards the 
west. Columbus conceived that the sea was grow- 
ing fresher. Heavy clouds hung on the northern 
horizon, a sure sign of land, it was supposed. 
12 



Columbus Discovers America 

On the next day two pelicans came on board, 
and Columbus records that these birds are not 
accustomed to go twenty leagues from land. 
So he sounded with a line of two hundred fathoms 
to be sure he was not approaching land; but no 
bottom was found. A drizzling rain also be- 
tokened land, which they could not stop to find, 
but would search for on their return, as the jour- 
nal says. The pilots now compared their reckon- 
ings. Columbus said they were 400 leagues, 
while the Pinta's record showed 420, and the 
Nina's 440. 

On September 2 o other pelicans came on board ; 
and the ships were again among the weeds. 
Columbus was determined to ascertain if these 
indicated shoal water and sounded, but could 
not reach bottom. The men caught a bird with 
feet like a gull; but they were convinced it was 
a river bird. Then singing land birds, as was 
fancied, hovered about as it darkened, but they 
disappeared before morning. Then a pelican 
was observed flying to the southwest, and as 
"these birds sleep on shore, and go to sea in the 
morning, ' ' the men encouraged themselves with 
the belief that they could not be far from land. 
The next day a whale could be but another 
indication of land ; and the weeds covered the sea 
all about. On Saturday, they steered west by 
northwest, and got clear of the weeds. This 
change of course so far to the north, which had 
begun on the previous day, was occasioned by a 
head wind, and Columbus says he welcomed it, 
13 



Masterpieces of Science 

because it had the effect of convincing the sailors 
that westerly winds to return by were not im- 
possible. On Sunday (September 23), they 
found the wind still varying; but they made 
more westering than before, — weeds, crabs, and 
birds still about them. Now there was 
smooth water, which again depressed the sea- 
men; then the sea arose, mysteriously, for there 
was no wind to cause it. They still kept their 
course westerly and continued it till the night of 
September 25. 

Columbus at this time conferred with Pinzon, 
as to a chart which they carried, which showed 
some islands, near where they now supposed the 
ships to be. That they had not seen land, they 
believed was either due to currents which had 
carried them too far north, or else their reckoning 
was not correct. At sunset Pinzon hailed the 
Admiral, and said he saw land, claiming the 
reward. The two crews were confident that such 
was the case, and under the lead of their com- 
manders they all kneeled and repeated the 
Gloria in Excelsis. The land appeared to lie 
southwest, and everybody saw the apparition. 
Columbus changed the fleet's course to reach it; 
and as the vessels went on, in the smooth sea, 
the men had the heart, under their expectation, 
to bathe in its amber glories. On Wednesday, 
they were undeceived, and found that the clouds 
had played them a trick. On the 27th their 
course lay more directly west. So they went on, 
and still remarked upon all the birds they saw 
14 



Columbus Discovers America 

and weed-drift which they pierced. Some of the 
fowl they thought to be such as were common 
at the Cape Verde Islands, and were not supposed 
to go far to sea. On the 30th of September, they 
still observed the needles of their compasses to 
vary, but the journal records that it was the pole 
star which moved, and not the needle. On 
October 1, Columbus says they were 707 leagues 
from Ferro; but he had made his crew believe 
they were only 584. As they went on, little 
new for the next few days is recorded in the 
journal; but on October 3, they thought they 
saw among the weeds something like fruits. 
By the 6th, Pinzon began to urge a southwesterly 
course, in order to find the islands, which the 
signs seemed to indicate in that direction. Still 
the Admiral would not swerve from his purpose, 
and kept his course westerly. On Sunday the 
Nina fired a bombard and hoisted a flag as a 
signal that she saw land, but it proved a delusion. 
Observing towards evening a flock of birds flying 
to the southwest, the Admiral yielded to Pin- 
zon's belief, and shifted his course to follow the 
birds. He records as a further reason for it that 
it was by following the flights of birds that the 
Portuguese had been so successful in discovering 
islands in other seas. 

Columbus now found himself two hundred 
miles and more farther than the three thousand 
miles west of Spain, where he supposed Cipango 
to lie, and he was 25^° north of the equator, 
according to his astrolabe. The true distance 
15 



Masterpieces of Science 

of Cipango or Japan was sixty-eight hundred 
miles still farther, or be3^ond both North America 
and the Pacific. How much beyond that island, 
in its supposed geographical position, Columbus 
expected to find the Asiatic main we can only 
conjecture from the restorations which modern 
scholars have made of Toscanelli's map, which 
makes the island about io° east of Asia, 
and from Behaim's globe, which makes it 20 . 
It should be borne in mind that the knowledge 
of its position came from Marco Polo, and he does 
not distinctly say how far it was from the Asiatic 
coast. In a general way, as to these distances 
from Spain to China, Toscanelli and Behaim 
agreed, and there is no reason to believe that the 
views of Columbus were in any noteworthy 
degree different. 

In the trial years afterward, when the Fiscal 
contested the rights of Diego Colon, it was put 
in evidence by one Vallejo, a seaman, that Pin- 
zon was induced to urge the direction to be 
changed to the southwest, because he had in the 
preceding evening observed a flight of parrots 
in that direction, which could have only been 
seeking land. It was the main purpose of the 
evidence in this part of the trial to show that 
Pinzon had all along forced Columbus forward 
against his will. 

How pregnant this change of course in the 

vessels of Columbus was has not escaped the 

observation of Humboldt and many others. 

A day or two further on his westerly way, and 

16 



Columbus Discovers America 

the Gulf Stream would, perhaps, insensibly have 
borne the little fleet up the Atlantic coast of the 
future United States, so that the banner of Cas- 
tile might have been planted at Carolina. 

On the 7th of October, Columbus was pretty 
nearly in latitude 25 50', — that of one of the 
Bahama Islands. Just where he was by longi- 
tude there is much more doubt, probably be- 
tween 65 and 66°. On the next day the land 
birds flying along the course of the ships seemed 
to confirm their hopes. On the 10th the journal 
records that the men began to lose patience ; but 
the Admiral reassured them by reminding them 
of the profits in store for them, and of the folly 
of seeking to return when they had already gone 
so far. 

It is possible that, in this entry, Columbus 
conceals the story which came out later in the 
recital of Oviedo, with more detail than in the 
Historie and Las Casas, that the rebellion of his 
crew was threatening enough to oblige him to 
promise to turn back if land was not discovered 
in three days. Most commentators, however, 
are inclined to think that this story of a mutinous 
revolt was merely engrafted from hearsay or 
other source by Oviedo upon the more genuine 
recital, and that the conspiracy to throw the 
Admiral into the sea has no substantial basis in 
contemporary report. Irving, who has a dra- 
matic tendency throughout his whole account 
of the voyage to heighten his recital with touches 
of the imagination, nevertheless allows this, and 
17 



Masterpieces of Science 

thinks that Oviedo was misled by listening to a 
pilot, who was a personal enemy of the Admiral. 

The elucidations of the voyage which were 
drawn out in the famous suit of Diego with the 
Crown in 15 13 and 151 5, afford no ground for 
any belief in this story of the mutiny and the 
concession of Columbus to it. 

It is not, however, difficult to conceive the 
recurrent fears of his men and the incessant 
anxiety of Columbus to quiet them. From 
what Peter Martyr tell us, — and he may have 
got it directly from Columbus's lips, — the task 
was not an easy one to preserve subordination 
and to instil confidence. He represents that 
Columbus was forced to resort in turn to argu- 
ment, persuasion and enticements, and to picture 
the misfortunes of the royal displeasure. 

The next day, notwithstanding a heavier sea 
than they had before encountered, certain signs 
sufficed to lift them out of their despondency. 
These were floating logs, or pieces of wood, one 
of them apparently carved by hand, bits of cane, 
a green rush, a stalk of rose berries and other 
drifting tokens. 

Their southwesterly course had now brought 
them down to about the twenty-fourth parallel, 
when after sunset on the nth they shifted 
their course to due west, while the crew of the 
Admiral's ship united, with more fervour than 
usual, in the Salve Regina. At about ten o'clock 
Columbus, peering into the night, thought he 
saw — if we may believe him — a moving light, 
18 



Columbus Discovers America 

and pointing out the direction to Pero Gutierrez, 
this companion saw it too ; but another, Rodrigo 
Sanchez, situated apparently on another part 
of the vessel, was not able to see it. It was not 
brought to the attention of any others. The 
Admiral says that the light seemed to be mov- 
ing up and down, and he claimed to have got 
other glimpses of its glimmer at a later moment. 
He ordered the Salve to be chanted, and directed 
a vigilant watch to be set on the forecastle. 
To sharpen their vision he promised a silken 
jacket, beside the income of ten thousand 
maravedis which the King and Queen had 
offered to the fortunate man who should first 
descry the coveted land. 

This light has been the occasion of such com- 
ment, and nothing will ever, it is likely, be settled 
about it, further than that the Admiral, with 
an inconsiderate rivalry of a common sailor, 
who later saw the actual land, and with an 
ungenerous assurance, ill-befitting a commander, 
pocketed a reward which belonged to another. 
If Oviedo, with his prejudices, is to be believed, 
Columbus was not even the first who claimed 
to have seen this dubious light. There is a com- 
mon story that the poor sailor, who was de- 
frauded, later turned Mohammedan and went 
to live among that juster people. There is a 
sort of retributive justice in the fact that the 
pension of the Crown was made a charge upon 
the shambles of Seville, and thence Columbus 
received it till he died. 
19 



Masterpieces of Science 

Whether the light is to be considered a reality 
or a fiction will depend much on the theory 
each may hold regarding the position of the 
landfall. When Columbus claimed to have dis- 
covered it, he was twelve or fourteen leagues 
away from the island, where four hours later 
land was indubitably found. Was the light 
on a canoe ? Was it on some small, outlying 
island, as has been suggested ? Was it a torch 
carried from hut to hut, as Herrera avers ? 
Was it on either of the other vessels ? Was it 
on the low island on which, the next morning 
he landed? There was no elevation on that 
island sufficient to show even a strong light 
at a distance of ten leagues. Was it a fancy 
or a deceit?" No one can say. It is very difficult 
for Navarrete, and even for Irving, to rest satis- 
fied with what after all may have been only 
an illusion of a fevered mind, making a record 
of the incident in the excitement of a wonderful 
hour, when his intelligence was not as circum- 
spect as it might have been. 

Four hours after the light was seen, at two 
o'clock in the morning, when the moon, near its 
third quarter, was in the east, the Pinta, keep- 
ing ahead, one of her sailors, Rodrigo de Triane 
descried the land two leagues away, and a gun 
communicated the joyful intelligence to the 
other ships. The fleet took in sail, and each 
vessel, under backed canvas, was pointed to the 
wind. Thus they waited for daybreak. It was 
a proud moment of painful suspense for Colum- 
20 



Columbus Discovers America 

bus; and brimming hopes, perhaps fears of dis- 
appointment, must have accompanied that hour 
of wavering enchantment. It was Friday, 
October 12, of the o^ i; chronology, and the 
little fleet had been thirty-three days on its 
way from the Canaries, and we must add ten 
days more to complete the period since they 
left Palos. The land before them was seen, as 
the day dawned, to be a small island, "called 
in the Indian tongue" Guanahani. Some naked 
natives were descried. The Admiral and the 
commanders of the other vessels prepared to 
land. Columbus took the royal standard and 
the others each a banner of the green cross, 
which bore the initials of the sovereign with a 
cross between, a crown surmounting every 
letter. Thus, with the emblems of their power, 
and accompanied by Rodrigo de Escoveda and 
Rodrigo Sanchez and some seamen, the boat 
rowed to the shore. They immediately took 
formal possession of the land, and the notary 
recorded it. 

The words of the prayer usually given as 
uttered by Columbus on taking possession of 
San Salvador, when he named the island, can- 
not be traced farther back than a collection 
of Tobias Chronologic as, got together at Valen- 
cia in 1689, by a Jesuit father, Claudio Clemente. 
Harrisse finds no authority for the statement 
of the French canonizers that Columbus estab- 
lished a form of prayer which was long in 
vogue, for such occupations of new lands. 
21 



Masterpieces of Science 

Las Casas, from whom we have the best ac- 
count of the ceremonies of the landing, does 
not mention it; but we find pictured in his 
pages the grave imp^=si^eness of the hour; 
the form of Columbus, with a crimson robe 
over his armour, central and grand; and the 
humbleness of his followers in their contrition 
for the hours of their faint -heartedness. 

Columbus now enters in his journal his im- 
pressions of the island and its inhabitants. 
He says of the land that it bore green trees, was 
watered by many streams, and produced divers 
fruits. In another place he speaks of the island 
as flat, without lofty eminence, surrounded by 
reefs, with a lake in the interior. 

The courses and distances of his sailing both 
before and on leaving the island, as well as 
this description, are the best means we have of 
identifying the spot of this portentous landfall. 
The early maps may help in a subsidiary way, 
but with little precision. 

There is just enough uncertainty and con- 
tradiction respecting the data and arguments 
applied in the solution of this question, to render 
it probable that men will never quite agree 
which of the Bahamas it was upon which these 
startled and exultant Europeans first stepped. 
Though Las Casas reports the journal of Colum- 
bus unabridged for a period after the landfall, 
he unfortunately condenses it for some time 
previous. There is apparently no chance of 
finding geographical conditions that in every 
22 



Columbus Discovers America 

respect will agree with, this record of Columbus, 
and we must content ourselves with what offers 
the fewest disagreements. An obvious method, 
if we could depend on Columbus's dead reckon- 
ing, would be to see for what island the actual 
distance from the Canaries would be nearest 
to his computed run; but currents and errors 
of the eye necessarily throw this sort of com- 
putation out of the question, and Captain G. 
A. Fox, who has tried it, finds that Cat Island 
is three hundred and seventeen, the Grand Turk 
six hundred and twenty-four nautical miles, and 
the other supposable points at intermediate dis- 
tances out of the way as compared with his 
computation of the distance run by Columbus, 
three thousand four hundred and fifty-eight of 
such miles. 

The reader will remember the Bahama group 
as a range of islands, islets, and rocks, said to be 
some three thousand in number, running south- 
east from a point part way up the Florida 
coast, and approaching at the other end the 
coast of Hispaniola. In the latitude of the lower 
point of Florida, and five degrees east of it, is 
the island of San Salvador or Cat Island, which 
is the most northerly of those claimed to have 
been the landfall of Columbus. Proceeding 
down the group, we encounter Watling's, Sam- 
ana, Acklin (with the Plana Cays), Mariguana, 
and the Grand Turk, — all of which have their 
advocates. The three methods of identification 
which have been followed are, first, by plotting 
23 



Masterpieces of Science 

the outward track; second, by plotting the 
track between the landfall and Cuba, both 
forward and backward; third, by applying the 
descriptions, particularly Columbus's, of the 
island first seen. In this last test, Harrisse pre- 
fers to apply the description of Las Casas, 
which is borrowed in part from that of the 
Historie, and he reconciles Columbus's apparent 
discrepancy when he says in one place that the 
island was "pretty large," and in another 
"small," by supposing that he may have applied 
these opposite terms, the lesser to the Plana 
Cays, as first seen, and the other to the Crooked 
Group, or Acklin Island, lying just westerly, 
on which he may have landed. Harrisse is the 
only one who makes this identification; and 
he finds some confirmation in later maps, 
which show thereabout an island, Triango or 
Triangulo, a name said by Las Casas to have 
been applied to Guanahani at a later day. 
There is no known map earlier than 1540 
bearing this alternative name of Triango. 

San Salvador seems to have been the island 
selected by the earliest of modern inquirers in 
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and 
it has had the support of Irving and Humboldt 
in later times. Captain Alexander Slidell 
Mackenzie of the United States navy worked 
out the problem for Irving. It is much larger 
than any of the other islands, and could hardly 
have been called by Columbus in any alter- 
native way a "small" island, while it does not 
24 



Columbus Discovers America 

answer Columbus's description of being level, 
having on it an eminence of four hundred feet, 
and no interior lagoon, as his Guanahani de- 
mands. The French canonizers stand by the 
old traditions, and find it meet to say that "the 
English Protestants not finding the name of 
San Salvador fine enough have substituted for 
it that of Cat, and in their hydro graphical 
atlases the Island of the Holy Saviour is nobly 
called Cat Island." 

The weight of modern testimony seems to 
favour Watling's Island, and it so far answers 
Columbus's description that about one-third of 
its interior is water, corresponding to his "large 
lagoon." Muhoz first suggested it in 1793; but 
the arguments in its favour were first spread out 
by Captain Becher of the royal navy in 1856, 
and he seems to have induced Oscar Peschel 
in 1S58 to adopt the same views in his history 
of the range of modern discovery. Major, the 
map custodian of the British Museum, who had 
previously followed Navarrete in favouring the 
Grand Turk, again addressed himself to the 
problem in 1870, and fell into line with the 
adherents of Watling's. No other considerable 
advocacy of this island, if we except the testi- 
mony of Gerard Stein in 1883, in a book on 
voyages of discovery, appeared till Lieutenant 
J. B. Murdoch, an officer of the American 
navy, made a very careful examination of the 
subject in the Proceedings of the United States 
Naval Institute in 1884, which is accepted by 
25 



Masterpieces of Science 

Charles A. Schott in the Bulletin of the United 
States Coast Survey. Murdoch was the first to 
plot in a backward way the track between 
Guanahani and Cuba, and he finds more points 
of resemblance in Columbus's description with 
Watling's than with any other. The latest 
adherent is the eminent geographer, Clements 
R. Markham, in the bulletin of the Italian 
Geographical Society in 1889. Perhaps no 
cartographical argument has been so effective 
as that of Major in comparing modern charts 
with the map of Herrera, in which the latter 
lays Guanahani down. 

An elaborate attempt to identity Samana as 
the landfall was made by the late Captain 
Gustavus Vasa Fox, in an appendix to the 
Report of the United States Coast S-urvey for 
1 8 80. Varnhagen, in 1864, selected Mari guana, 
and defended his choice in a paper. This island 
fails to satisfy the physical conditions in being 
without interior water. Such a qualification, 
however, belongs to the Grand Turk Island, 
which was advocated first by Navarrete in 
1826, whose views have since been supported 
by George Gibbs, and for a while by Major. 

It is rather curious to note that Caleb Gush- 
ing, who undertook to examine this question 
in the North American Review, under the guid- 
ance of Navarrete 's theory, tried the same 
backward method which has been later applied 
to the problem, but with quite different results 
from those reached by more recent investiga- 
26 



Columbus Discovers America 

tors. He says, "By setting out from Nipe 
which is the point where Columbus struck 
Cuba and proceeding in a retrograde direction 
along his course, we may surely trace his path, 
and shall be convinced that Guanahani is nc 
other than Turk's Island." 



27 




2S 



LEWIS AND CLARKE REACH THE 
PACIFIC OCEAN 

[In 1S04-6 Captains Lewis and Clarke, by order of the 
Government of the United States, commanded an expedition 
to the sources of the Missouri, thence across the Rocky 
Mountains and down the River Columbia to the Pacific 
Ocean. Chapter IV., which follows, is taken from the second 
volume of the History of the .Expedition, published by 
Harper & Brothers, New York, 1842. The matter of the 
original journal is indicated by inverted commas, and where 
portions of it embracing minute and uninteresting par- 
ticulars, have been omitted, the leading facts have been 
briefly stated by the editor, Archibald McVickar, in his own 
words, so that the connection of the narrative is preserved 
unbroken and nothing of importance is lost to the reader. 
The History of the Expedition, edited, with notes by Elliott 
Coues, was published in 1S93 in four volumes by Francis 
P. Harper, New York. This edition surpasses every other 
in its excellence: it has passed out of print, but may be found 
in many public libraries. In 1901 Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 
Boston, published "Lewis and Clark," by Wm. R. Lighton: 
within one hundred and fifty-nine small pages the story of 
the famous expedition is admirably condensed. Good por- 
traits of Lewis and Clark form the frontispiece. 

" November 2, 1803. We now examined the 
rapid below more particularly, and the danger 
appearing to be too great for the loaded canoes, 
all those who could not swim "were sent with 
the baggage by land. The canoes then passed 
safely down and were reloaded. At the foot of 
the rapid we took a meridian altitude and found 
our latitude to be 59 45' 45"." 
29 



Masterpieces of Science 

This rapid forms the last of the descents of 
the Columbia; and immediately # below it the 
river widens, and tidewater commences. Shortly 
after starting they passed an island three miles 
in length and to which, from that plant being 
seen on it in great abundance, they gave the 
name of Strawberry Island. Directly beyond 
were three small islands, and in the meadow 
to the right, at some distance from the hills 
in the background was a single perpendicular 
rock, which they judged to be no less than 
eight hundred feet high and four hundred 
yards at the base, which they called Beacon 
Rock. A little farther on they found the river 
a mile in breadth, and double this breadth four 
miles beyond. After making twenty-nine miles 
from the foot of the Great Shoot, they halted 
for the night at a point where the river was 
two and a half miles wide. The character of the 
country they had passed through during the 
day was very different from that they had 
lately been accustomed to, the hills being thickly 
covered with timber, chiefly of the pine species. 
The tide rose at their encampment about nine 
inches, and they saw great numbers of water- 
fowl, such as swan, geese, ducks of various 
kinds, gulls, etc. 

The next day, November 3d, they set off in 
company with some Indians who had joined 
them the evening before. At the distance of 
three miles they passed a river on the left, to 
which, from the quantity of sand it bears along 
30 



Lewis and Clarke Reach the Pacific 

with it, they gave the name of Quicksand 
River. So great, indeed, was the quantity it 
had discharged into the Columbia, that the 
river was compressed to the width of half a 
mile, and the whole force of the current thrown ■ 
against the right shore. Opposite this was a 
large creek, which they called Seal River. The 
mountain which they had supposed to be the 
Mount Hood of Vancouver, now bore S. 85 
E., about forty-seven miles distant. About 
three miles farther on they passed the lower 
mouth of Quicksand River, opposite to which 
was another large creek, and near it the head 
of an island three miles and a half in extent; 
and half a mile beyond it was another island, 
which they called Diamond Island, opposite 
to which they encamped, having made but thir- 
teen miles' distance. Here they met with some 
Indians ascending the river, who stated that they 
had seen three vessels at its mouth. 

"Below Quicksand River," says the Journal, 
"the country is low, rich, and thickly wooded 
on each side of the Columbia; the islands have 
less timber, and on them are numerous ponds, 
near which were vast quantities of fowl, such 
as swan, geese, brant, cranes, storks, white 
gulls, cormorants, and plover. The river is 
wide and contains a great number of sea- 
otters. In the evening the hunters brought in 
game for a sumptuous supper." 

In continuing their descent the next day, 
they found Diamond Island to be six miles in 
31 



Masterpieces of Science 

length and three broad; and near its termina- 
tion were two other islands. "Just below the 
last of these," proceeds the narrative, "we 
landed on the left bank of the river, at a village 
of twenty-five houses, all of which were thatched 
with straw, and built of bark except one, which 
was about fifty feet long and constructed of 
boards, in the form of those higher up the river, 
from which it differed, however, in being com- 
pletely above ground, and covered with broad, 
split boards. This village contained about two 
hundred men of the Skilloot nation, who seemed 
well provided with canoes, of which there were 
at least fifty-two, and some of them very large, 
drawn up in front of the village. On landing, 
we found an Indian from above, who had left 
us this morning, and who now invited us 
into a lodge of which he appeared to be part 
owner. Here he treated us with a root, round 
in shape and about the size of a small Irish 
potato, which they call wappatoo: it is the com- 
mon arrow-head or sagittijolia so much culti- 
vated by the Chinese, and, when roasted in the 
embers till it becomes soft, has an agreeable 
taste, and is a very good substitute for bread. 
After purchasing some of this root we resumed 
our journey, and at seven miles' distance came 
to the head of a large island near the left bank. 
On the right shore was a fine open prairie for 
about a mile, back of which the country rises, 
and is well supplied with timber, such as white 
oak, pine of different kinds, wild crab, and 
32 



Lewis and Clarke Reach the Pacific 

several species of undergrowth, while along the 
borders of the river there were only a few 
cottonwood and ash trees. In this prairie were 
also signs of deer and elk. 

"When we landed for dinner a number of 
Indians came down, for the purpose, as we sup- 
posed, of paying us a friendly visit, as they 
had put on their finest dresses. In addition to 
their usual covering, they had scarlet and blue 
blankets, sailor's jackets and trowsers, shirts, 
and hats. They had all of them either war- 
axes, spears, and bows and arrows, or muskets 
and pistols, with tin powder-flasks. We smoked 
with them, and endeavoured to show them 
every attention, but soon found them very 
assuming and disagreeable companions. While 
we were eating, they stole the pipe with which 
they were smoking, and a great coat of one of 
the men. We immediately searched them all, 
and found the coat stuffed under the root of a 
tree near where they were sitting ; but the pipe 
we could not recover. Finding us discontented 
with them, and determined not to suffer any 
imposition, they showed their displeasure in the 
only way they dared, by returning in ill humour 
to their village. We then proceeded, and soon 
met two canoes, with twelve men of the same 
Skilloot nation, who were on their way from 
below. The larger of the canoes was ornamented 
with the figures of a bear in the bow and a man 
in the stern, both nearly as large as life, both 
made of painted wood, and very neatly fastened 
33 



Masterpieces of Science 

to the boat. In the same canoe were two Indians 
gaudily dressed, and with round hats. This 
circumstance induced us to give the name of 
Image Canoe to the large island, the lower end 
of which we were now passing, at the distance 
of nine miles from its head. We had seen two 
smaller islands to the right, and three more 
near its lower extremity." . . . "The river 
was now about a mile and a half in width, with 
a gentle current, and the bottoms extensive and 
low, but not subject to be overflowed. Three 
miles below Image Canoe Island we came to 
four large houses on the left side; here we had 
a full view of the mountain which we had first 
seen from the Muscleshell Rapid on the 19th 
of October, and which we now found to be, 
in fact, the Mount St. Helen of Vancouver. It 
bore north 25 east, about ninety miles distant, 
rose in the form of a sugar loaf to a very great 
height, and was covered with snow. A mile 
lower we passed a single house on the left, 
and another on the right. The Indians had 
now learned so much of us that their curiosity 
was without any mixture of fear, and their 
visits became very frequent and troublesome. 
We therefore continued on till after night, in 
hopes of getting rid of them; but, after passing 
a village on each side, which, on account of the 
lateness of the hour, we could only see indis- 
tinctly, we found there was no escaping from 
their importunities. We accordingly landed at 
the distance of seven miles below Image Canoe 
34 



Lewis and Clarke Reach the Pacific 

Island, and encamped near a single house on 
the right, having made during the day twenty- 
nine miles. 

"The Skilloots that we passed to-day speak 
a language somewhat different from that of 
the Echeloots or Chilluckittequaws near the long 
narrows. Their dress, however, is similar, ex- 
cept that the Skilloots possess more articles 
procured from the white traders; and there is 
this farther difference between them, that the 
Skilloots, both males and females, have the 
head flattened. Their principal food is fish, 
wappatoo roots, and some elk and deer, in kill- 
ing which with arrows they seem to be very 
expert; for during the short time we remained 
at the village three deer were brought in. We 
also observed there a tame blaireau (badger]. 

"As soon as we landed we were visited by 
two canoes loaded with Indians, from whom 
we purchased a few roots. The grounds along 
the river continued low and rich, and among 
the shrubs were large quantities of vines resem- 
bling the raspberry. On the right the low grounds 
were terminated at the distance of five miles 
by a range of high hills covered with tall tim- 
ber, and running southeast and northwest. 
The game, as usual, was very abundant; and, 
among other birds, we observed some white 
geese, with a part of their wings black. ' ' 

Early the next morning they resumed their 
voyage, passing several islands in the course 
of the day, the river alternately widening and 
35 



Masterpieces of Science 

contracting, and the hills sometimes retiring 
from, and at others approaching, its banks. 
They stopped for the night at the distance of 
thirty-two miles from their last encampment. 
"Before landing," proceeds the Journal, "we 
met two canoes, the largest of which had at 
the bow the image of a bear, and that of a man 
on the stern: there were twenty-six Indians 
on board, but they proceeded upwards, and 
we were left, for the first time since we reached 
the waters of the Columbia, without any of the 
natives with us during the night. Besides other 
game, we killed a grouse much larger than the 
common kind, and observed along the shore 
a number of striped snakes. The river is here 
deep, and about a mile and a half in width. 
Here, too, the ridge of low mountains, running 
northwest and southeast, crosses the river and 
forms the western boundary of the plain through 
which we had just passed. This great plain or 
valley begins above the mouth of Quicksand 
River, and is about sixty miles long in a straight 
line, while on the right and left it extends to 
a great distance; it is a fertile and delightful 
country, shaded by thick groves of tall timber, 
and watered by small ponds on both sides of 
the river. The soil is rich and capable of any 
species of culture; but in the present condition 
of the Indians, its chief production is the wap- 
patoo root, which grows spontaneously and ex- 
clusively in this region. Sheltered as it is on 
both sides, the temperature is much milder 
36 



Lewis and Clarke Reach the Pacific 

than that of the surrounding country; for even 
at this season of the year we observed but very 
little appearance of frost. It is inhabited by 
numerous tribes of Indians, who either reside 
in it permanently, or visits its waters in quest 
of fish and wappatoo roots. We gave it the 
name of the Columbia Valley. 

" November 6. The morning was cool and 
rainy. We proceeded at an early hour between 
high hills on both sides of the river, till at the 
distance of four miles we came to two tents 
of Indians in a small plain on the left, where 
the hills on the right recede a few miles, and a 
long, narrow inland stretches along the right 
shore. Behind this island is the mouth of a 
large river, a hundred and fifty yards wide, 
called by the Indians Coweliske. We halted 
on the island for dinner, but the redwood and 
green briers were so interwoven with the pine, 
alder, ash, a species of beech, and other trees, 
that the woods formed a thicket which our 
hunters could not penetrate. Below the mouth 
of the Coweliske a very remarkable knob rises 
from the water's edge to the height of eighty 
feet, being two hundred paces round the base; 
and as it is in a low part of the island, and at 
some distance from the high grounds, its ap- 
pearance is very singular. On setting out after 
dinner we overtook two canoes going down to 
trade. One of the Indians, who spoke a few 
words of English, mentioned that the principal 
person who traded with them was a Mr. Haley; 
37 



Masterpieces of Science 

and he showed us a bow of iron and several 
other things, which he said he had given him. 
Nine miles below Coweliske River is a creek 
on the same side; and between them three 
smaller islands, one on the left shore, the other 
about the middle of the river, and a third near 
the lower end of the long, narrow island, and 
opposite a high cliff of black rocks on the left, 
sixteen miles from our last night's encamp- 
ment. Here we were overtaken by some Indians 
from the two tents we had passed in the morning, 
from whom we purchased wappatoo roots, 
salmon, trout, and two beaver-skins,, for which 
last we gave five small fish-hooks." 

Here the mountains which had been high 
and rugged on the left, retired from the river, 
as had the hills on the right, since leaving the 
Coweliske, and a beautiful plain was spread 
out before them. They met with several islands 
on their way, and having at the distance of 
five miles come to the termination of the plain, 
they proceeded for eight miles through a hilly 
country, and encamped for the night after 
having made twenty-nine miles. 

"November 7. The morning," proceeds the 
narrative, "was rainy, and the fog so thick 
that we could not see across the river. We 
observed, however, opposite to our camp, 
the upper point of an island, between which 
and the steep hills on the right we proceeded 
for five miles. Three miles lower was the be- 
ginning of an island, separated from the right 
38 



Lewis and Clarke Reach the Pacific 

shore by a narrow channel: down this we pro- 
ceeded under the direction of some Indians 
whom we had just met going up the river, 
and who returned in order to show us their 
village. It consisted of four houses only, situated 
on this channel, behind several marshy islands 
formed by two small creeks. On our arrival 
they gave us some fish, and we afterwards 
purchased wappatoo roots, fish, three dogs, and 
two otter-skins, for which we gave fish-hooks 
chiefly, that being an article which they are 
very anxious to obtain. 

"These people seemed to be of a different 
nation from those we had just passed: they 
were low in stature, ill-shaped, and all had 
their heads flattened. They called themselves 
Wahkiacum, and their language differed from 
that of the tribes above, with whom they trade 
for wappatoo roots. The houses, too, were built 
in a different style, being raised entirely above 
ground, with the eaves about five feet high, 
and the door at the corner. Near the end oppo- 
site to the door was a single fireplace, round 
which were the beds, raised four feet from the 
floor of earth; over the fire were hung fresh fish, 
and when dried they are stowed away with the 
wappatoo roots under the beds. The dress of 
the men was like that of the people above ; but 
the women were clad in a peculiar manner, 
the robe not reaching lower than the hip, and 
the body being covered in cold weather by a 
sort of corset of fur, curiously plaited, and 
39 



Masterpieces of Science 

reaching from the arms to the hip: added to 
this was a sort of petticoat, or, rather, tissue 
of white cedar bark, bruised or broken into 
small strands and woven into a girdle by sev- 
eral cords of the same material. Being tied 
round the middle, these strands hang down 
as low as the knee in front and to the middle 
of the leg behind: sometimes the tissue consists 
of strings of silk-grass, twisted and knotted 
at the end. 

"After remaining with them about an hour, 
we proceeded down the channel with an Indian 
dressed in a sailor's jacket for our pilot; and, 
on reaching the main channel, were visited by 
some Indians, who have a temporary residence 
on a marshy island, Tenasillih.ee, in the middle 
of the river, where there are great numbers of 
water-fowl. Here the mountainous country 
again approaches the river on the left, and a 
higher saddle mountain is perceived towards 
the southwest. At a distance of 'twenty miles 
from our camp we halted at a village of Wah- 
kiacums, consisting of seven ill-looking houses, 
built in the same form with those above, and 
situated at the foot of the high hills on the right, 
behind two small marshy islands. We merely 
stopped to purchase some food and two beaver 
skins, and then proceeded. Opposite to these 
islands the hills on the left retire, and the river 
widens into a kind of bay, crowded with low 
islands, subject to be overflowed occasionally 
by the tide. We had not gone far from this 
40 



Lewis and Clarke Reach the Pacific 

village when, the fog suddenly clearing away, 
we were at last presented with a glorious sight 
of the ocean — that ocean, the object of all our 
labours, the reward of all our anxieties. This 
animating sight exhilarated the spirits of all 
the party, who were still more delighted on 
hearing the distant roar of the breakers. We 
went on with great cheerfulness along the high 
mountainous country which bordered the right 
bank: the shore, however, was so bold and 
rocky that we could not, until a distance of 
fourteen miles from the last village, find any 
spot fit for an encampment. Having made 
during the day thirty-four miles, we now spread 
our mats on the ground, and passed the night 
in the rain. Here we were joined by our small 
canoe, which had been separated from us 
during the fog this morning. Two Indians 
from the last village also accompanied us to 
the camp; but having detected them in stealing 
a knife, they were sent off. 

"November 8. It rained this morning; and, 
having changed our clothing, which had been 
wet by yesterday's rain, we set out at nine 
o'clock. Immediately opposite our camp was a 
pillar rock, at the distance of a mile in the river, 
about twenty feet in diameter and fifty in 
height, and towards the southwest some high 
mountains, one of which was covered with snow 
at the top. We proceeded past several low 
islands in the bend or bay of the river to the 
left, which were here five or six miles wide. 
41 



Masterpieces of Science 

On the right side we passed an old village, 
and then, at the distance of three miles, entered 
an inlet or niche, about six miles across, and 
making a deep bend of nearly five miles into the 
hills on the right shore, where it receives the 
waters of several creeks. We coasted along this 
inlet, which, from its little depth, we called 
Shallow Bay, and at the bottom of it stopped 
to dine, near the remains of an old village, 
from which, however, we kept at a cautious 
distance, as, like all these places, it was occupied 
by a plentiful stock of fleas. At this place we 
observed a number of fowl, among which we 
killed a goose and two ducks exactly resembling 
in appearance and flavour the canvas-back 
duck of the Susquehanna. After dinner we took 
advantage of the returning tide to go about 
three miles to a point on the right, eight miles 
distant from our camp; but here the water 
ran so high and washed about our canoe so much 
that several of the men became seasick. It was 
therefore judged imprudent to proceed in the 
present state of the weather, and we landed at 
the point. Our situation here was extremely 
uncomfortable: the high hills jutted in so closely 
that there was not room for us to lie level, 
nor to secure our baggage from the tide, and 
the water of the river was too salty to be used; 
but the waves increasing so much that we could 
not move from the spot with safety, we fixed 
ourselves on the beach left by the ebb-tide, 
and, raising the baggage on poles, passed a dis- 
42 



Lewis and Clarke Reach the Pacific 

agreeable night, the rain during the day having 
wet us completely, as, indeed, we had been for 
some time past. 

November 9. Fortunately, the tide did 
not rise as high as our camp during the night; 
but, being accompanied by high winds from 
the south, the canoes, which we could not place 
beyond its reach, were filled with water and 
saved with much difficulty: our position was 
exceedingly disagreeable; but, as it was impos- 
sible to move from it, we waited for a change 
of weather. It rained, however, during the 
whole day, and at two o'clock in the afternoon 
the flood- tide came in, accompanied by a high 
wind from the south, which at about four 
o'clock shifted to the southwest, and blew 
almost a gale directly from the sea. Immense 
waves now broke over the place where we were 
and large trees, some of them five or six feet 
through, which had been lodged on the point, 
drifted over our camp, so that the utmost 
vigilance of every man could scarcely save the 
canoes from being crushed to pieces. We re- 
mained in the water and were drenched with 
rain during the rest of the day, our only suste- 
nance being some dried fish and the rain water 
which we caught. Yet, though wet and cold, 
and some of them sick from using salt water, 
the men were cheerful and full of anxiety to 
see more of the ocean. The rain continued all 
night and the following morning. 

November 10, the wind lulling and the 
43 



Masterpieces of Science 

waves not being so high, we loaded our canoes 
and proceeded. The mountains on the right are 
here high, covered with timber, chiefly pine, 
and descend with a bold and rocky shore to 
the water. We went through a deep niche 
and several inlets on the right, while on the 
opposite side was a large bay, above which the 
hills are close on the river. At the distance of 
ten miles the wind rose from the northwest, 
and the waves became so high that we were 
forced to return two miles for a place where 
we could unload with safety. Here we landed 
at the mouth of a small run, and, having placed 
our baggage on a pile of drifted logs, waited 
until low water. The ri\ r er then appearing 
more calm, we started again; but, after going a 
mile, found the waters too turbulent for our 
canoes, and were obliged to put to shore. Here 
we landed the baggage, and, having placed it on 
a 'rock above the reach of the tide, encamped 
on some drift logs, which formed the only place 
where we could lie, the hills rising steep over 
our heads to the height of five hundred feet. 
All our baggage, as well as ourselves, was thor- 
oughly wet with rain, which did not cease 
during the day; it continued, indeed, vio- 
lently through the night, in the course of 
which the tide reached the logs on which we 
lay, and set them afloat. 

November II. The wind was still high 
from the southwest, and drove the waves against 
the shore with great fury; the rain, too, fell in 
44 



Lewis and Clarke Reach the Pacific 

torrents, and not only drenched us to the skin, 
but loosened the stones on the hillsides, so 
that they came rolling down upon us. In this 
comfortless condition we remained all day, wet 
and cold, and with nothing but dried fish to 
satisfy our hunger; the canoes at the mercy of 
the waves at one place, the baggage in another, 
and the men scattered on floating logs, or shelter- 
ing themselves in the crevices of the rocks and 
hillsides. A hunter was despatched in the hope 
of finding some game; but the hills were so 
steep, and so covered with undergrowth and 
fallen timber, that he could not proceed, and 
was forced to return. About twelve o'clock 
we were visited by five Indians in a canoe. 
They came from the opposite side of the river, 
above where we were, and their language much 
resembled that of the Wahkiacums: they calling 
themselves Cathlamahs. In person they were 
small, ill-made, and badly clothed; though 
one of them had on a sailor's jacket and panta- 
loons, which, as he explained by signs, he had 
received from the whites below the point. We 
purchased from them thirteen red charr, a fish 
which we found very excellent. After some 
time they went on board their boat and crossed 
the river, which is here five miles wide, through 
a very heavy sea. 

November 12. About three o'clock a tre- 
mendous gale of wind arose, accompanied with 
lightning, thunder, and hail; at six it lightened 
up for a short time, but a violent rain soon 
45 



Masterpieces of Science 

began and lasted through the day. During the 
storm one of our boats, secured by being sunk 
with great quantities of stone, got loose, but, 
drifting against a rock, was recovered without 
having received much injury. Our situation 
now became much more dangerous, for the 
waves were driven with fury against the rocks 
and trees, which till now had afforded us refuge: 
we therefore took advantage of the low tide, 
and moved about half a mile round a point 
to a small brook, which we had not observed 
before on account of the thick bushes and drift- 
wood which concealed its mouth. Here we 
were more safe, but still cold and wet; our 
clothes and bedding rotten as well as wet, our 
baggage at a distance, and the canoes, our 
only means of escape from this place, at the 
mercy of the waves. Still, we continued to enjoy 
good health, and even had the luxury of feasting 
on some salmon and three salmon trout which 
we caught in the brook. Three of the men 
attempted to go round a point in our small 
Indian canoe, but the high waves rendered 
her quite unmanageable, these boats requiring 
the seamanship of the natives to make them 
live in so rough a sea. 

November ij. During the night we had 
short intervals of fair weather, but it began to 
rain in the morning and continued through the 
day. In order to obtain a view of the country 
below, Captain Clarke followed the course of 
the brook, and with much fatigue, and after 
46 



Lewis and Clarke Reach the Pacific 

walking three miles, ascended the first spur 
of the mountains. The whole lower country 
he found covered with almost impenetrable 
thickets of small pine, with which is mixed a 
species of plant resembling arrow-wood, twelve 
or fifteen feet high, with thorny stems, almost 
interwoven with each other, and scattered 
among the fern and fallen timber: there is also 
a red berry, somewhat like the Solomon's seal, 
which is called by the natives solme, and used 
as an article of diet. This thick growth rendered 
travelling almost impossible, and it was ren- 
dered still morefatiguing by the abruptness of 
the mountain, which was so steep as to oblige 
him to draw himself up by means of the bushes. 
The timber on the hills is chiefly of a large, 
tall species of pine, many of the trees eight or 
ten feet in diameter at the stump, and rising 
sometimes more than one hundred feet in height. 
The hail which fell two nights before was still 
to be seen on the mountains; there was no 
game, and no marks of any, except some old 
tracks of elk. The cloudy "weather prevented 
his seeing to any distance, and he therefore 
returned to camp and sent three men in an 
Indian canoe to try if they could double the 
point and find some safer harbour for our 
boats. At every flood-tide the sea broke in 
great swells against the rocks and drifted the 
trees against our establishment, so as to render 
it very insecure. 

November 14. It had rained without inter- 
47 



Masterpieces of Science 

mission during the night and continued to 
through the day; the wind, too, was very high, 
and one of our canoes much injured by being 
driven against the rocks. Five Indians from 
below came to us in a canoe, and three of them 
landed, and informed us that they had seen the 
men sent down yesterday. Fortunately, at this 
moment one of the men arrived, and told us 
that these very Indians had stolen his gig and 
basket; we therefore ordered the two women, 
who remained in the canoe, to restore them; 
but this they refused to do till we threatened 
to shoot them, when they gave back the articles, 
and we commanded them to leave us. They 
were of the Wahkiacum nation. The man now 
informed us that they had gone round the 
point as far as the high sea would suffer them 
in the canoe, and then landed; that in the night 
he had separated from his companions, who 
had proceeded farther down; and that, at no 
great distance from, where we were, was a 
beautiful sand beach and a good harbour. 
Captain Lewis determined to examine more 
minutely the lower part of the bay, and, em- 
barking in one of the large canoes, was put on 
shore at the point, whence he proceeded by 
land with four men, and the canoe returned 
nearly filled with water. 

November 15. It continued raining all 

night, but in the morning the weather became 

calm and fair. We began, therefore, to prepare 

for setting out ; but before we were ready a high 

48 



Lewis and Clarke Reach the Pacific 

wind sprang up from the southeast, and obliged 
us to remain. The sun shone until one o'clock, 
and we were thus enabled to dry our bedding and 
examine our baggage. The rain, which had con- 
tinued for the last ten days without any interval 
of more than two hours, had completely wet all 
our merchandise, spoiled some of our fish, de- 
stroyed the robes, and rotted nearly one-half of 
our few remaining articles of clothing, particu- 
larly the leather dresses. About three o'clock 
the wind fell, and we instantly loaded the canoes, 
and left the miserable spot to which we had been 
confined the last six days. On turning the 
point we came to the sand beach, through which 
runs a small stream from the hills, at the mouth 
of which was an ancient village of thirty-six 
houses, without any inhabitants at the time ex- 
cept fleas. Here we met Shannon, who had been 
sent back to us by Captain Lewis. The day 
Shannon left us in the canoe, he and "Willard pro- 
ceeded on till they met a party of twenty Indians, 
who, not having heard of us, did not know who 
they were; but they behaved with great civility 
— so great, indeed, and seemed so anxious that 
our men should accompany them towards the 
sea, that their suspicions were aroused, and they 
declined going. The Indians, however, would 
not leave them; and the men, becoming con- 
firmed in their suspicions, and fearful, if they 
went into the woods to sleep, that they would 
be cut to pieces in the night, thought it best to 
remain with the Indians: they therefore made 
49 



Masterpieces of Science 

a fire, and after talking with them to a late hour, 
laid down with their rifles under their heads. 
When they awoke they found that the Indians 
had stolen and concealed their arms; and having 
demanded them in vain, Shannon seized a club, 
and was about assaulting one of the Indians 
whom he suspected to be the thief, when another 
of them began to load his fowling-piece with the 
intention of shooting him. He therefore stopped, 
and explained to them by signs, that if they 
did not give up the guns, a large party would 
come down the river before the sun rose to a cer- 
tain height, and put every one of them to death. 
Fortunately, Captain Lewis and his party ap- 
peared at this very time, and the terrified Indians 
immediately brought the guns, and five of them 
came in with Shannon. To these men we de- 
clared that, if ever any of their nation stole any- 
thing from us, he would be instantly shot. They 
resided to the north of this place, and spoke a 
language different from that of the people higher 
up the river. It was now apparent that the 
sea was at all times too rough for us to proceed 
farther down the bay by water: we therefore 
landed, and, having chosen the best spot we 
could, made our camp of boards from the old 
village. We were now comfortably situated; 
and, being visited by four Wahkiacums with 
wappatoo roots, were enabled to make an agree- 
able addition to our food. 

November 16. The morning was clear and 
pleasant. We therefore put out all our baggage 
50 



Lewis and Clarke Reach the Pacific 

to dry, and sent several of our party to hunt. 
Our camp was in full view of the ocean, on the 
bay laid down by Vancouver, which we dis- 
tinguished by the name of Haley's Bay, from a 
trader who visits the Indians here, and is a great 
favourite among them. The meridian altitude 
of this day gave 46 19' 11.7" as our latitude. 
The wind was strong from the southwest, and 
"the waves were very high, yet the Indians were 
passing up and down the bay in canoes, and 
several of them encamped near us. We smoked 
with them, but, after our recent experience of 
their thievish disposition, treated them with 
caution." 

"The hunters brought in two deer, a crane, 
some geese and ducks, and several brant, three 
of which were white, except a part of the wing, 
which was black, and they were much larger than 
the gray brant. 

November ij. A fair, cool morning, and 
easterly wind. The tide rises at this place eight 
feet six inches. 

"About one o'clock Captain Lewis returned, 
after having coasted down Haley's Bay to Cape 
Disappointment, and some distance to the north, 
along the seacoast. He was followed by several 
Chinnooks, among whom were the principal chief 
and his family. They made us a present of a 
boiled root very much like the common licorice 
in taste and size, called culwhamo; and in return 
we gave them articles of double its value. We 
now learned, however, the danger 01 accepting 
51 



Masterpieces of Science 

anything from them, since nothing given in pay- 
ment, even though ten times more valuable, 
would satisfy them. We were chiefly occupied 
in hunting, and were able to procure three deer, 
four brant, and two ducks; and also saw some 
signs of elk. Captain Clarke now prepared for 
an excursion down the bay, and accordingly 
started. 

November 18, at daylight, accompanied by 
eleven men, he proceeded along the beach 
one mile to a point of rocks about forty feet 
high, where the hills retired, leaving a wide beach 
and a number of ponds covered with water-fowl, 
between which and the mountain there was a 
narrow bottom covered with alder and small bal- 
sam trees. Seven miles from the rocks was the 
entrance from the creek, or rather drain from the 
pond and hills, where was a cabin of Chinnooks. 
The cabin contained some children and four 
women. They were taken across the creek in a 
canoe by two squaws, to each of whom they gave 
a fish-hook, and then, coasting along the bay, 
passed at two miles the low bluff of a small hill, 
below which were the ruins of some old huts, and 
close to it the remains of a whale. The country 
was low, open, and marshy, interspersed with 
some high pine and with a thick undergrowth. 
Five miles from the creek, they came to a stream, 
forty yards wide at low water, which they called 
Chinnook River. The hills up this river and 
towards the bay were not high, but very thickly 
covered with large pine of several species." 
52 



Lewis and Clarke Reach the Pacific 

Proceeding along the shore, they came to a 
deep bend, appearing to afford a good harbour, 
and here the natives told them that European 
vessels usually anchored. About two miles 
farther on they reached Cape Disappointment, 
"an elevated circular knob," says the Journal, 
"rising with a steep ascent one hundred and fifty 
or one hundred and sixty feet above the water, 
formed like the whole shore of the bay, as well 
as of the seacoast, and covered with thick timber 
on the inner side, but open and grassy on the ex- 
posure next the sea. From this cape a high 
point of land bears south 20 west, about twenty- 
five miles distant. In the range between these 
two eminences is the opposite point of the bay, 
a very low ground, which has been variously 
called Cape Rond by Le Perouse, and Point 
Adams by Vancouver. The water, for a great 
distance off the mouth of the river, appears very 
shallow, and within the mouth, nearest to Point 
Adams, is a large sand-bar, almost covered at 
high tide. " 

November ig. In the evening it began to 
rain, and continued until eleven o'clock. Two 
hunters were sent out in the morning to kill some- 
thing for breakfast, and the rest of the party, 
after drying their blankets, soon followed. At 
three miles they overtook the hunters, and break- 
fasted on a small deer which they had been fortu- 
nate enough to kill. This, like all those that we 
saw on the coast, was much darker than our com- 
mon deer. Their bodies, too, are deeper, their 
53 



Masterpieces of Science 

legs shorter, and their eyes larger. The branches 
of the horns are similar, but the upper part of the 
tail is black, from the root to the end, and they 
do not leap, but jump like a sheep frightened. " 

Continuing along five miles farther, they 
reached a point of high land, below which a sandy 
point extended in a direction north 19 west to 
another high point twenty miles distant. To this 
they gave the name of Point Lewis. They pro- 
ceeded four miles farther along the sandy beach 
to a small pine tree, on which Captain Clarke 
marked his name, with the year and day, and 
then set out to return to the camp, where they 
arrived the following day, having met a large 
party of Chinnooks corning from it. 

November 21. The morning was cloudy, 
and from noon till night it rained. The wind, 
too, was high from the southeast, and the sea so 
rough that the water reached our camp. Most 
of the Chinnooks returned home, but we were 
visited in the course of the day by people of 
different bands in the neighbourhood, among 
whom were the Chiltz, a nation residing on 
the seacoast near Point Lewis, and the Clat- 
sops, who live immediately opposite, on the south 
side of the Columbia. A chief from the grand 
rapid also came to see us, and we gave him a 
medal. To each of our visitors we made a pres- 
ent of a small piece of riband, and purchased 
some cranberries, and some articles of their 
manufacture, such as mats and household furni- 
ture, for all of which we paid high prices. " 
54 



THE SOURCES OF THE MISSISSIPPI 
Brigadier-General Zebulon M. Pike 

[During the years 1805, 1806, and 1807 Brigadier-General 
Pike commanded, by order of the Government of the United 
States, an expedition to the sources of the Mississippi, through 
the western part of Louisiana, to the sources of the Arkansas, 
Kansas, La Platte and Pierre Juan rivers. The extracts which 
follow are taken from his narrative published in Philadelphia, 
1 810. An excellent edition, edited with copious notes by 
Elliott Coues, was published in three volumes by Francis P. 
Harper, Nev^ York, 1895.] 

January 1, 1806. Passed six very elegant 
bark canoes on the bank of the river, which had 
been laid up by the Chipeways; also a camp 
which we had conceived to have been evacuated 
about ten days. My interpreter came after me 
in a great hurry, conjuring me not to go so far 
ahead, and assured me that the Chipeways, 
encountering me without an interpreter, party, or 
flag, would certainly kill me. But, notwith- 
standing this, I went on several miles farther 
than usual, in order to make any discoveries 
that were to be made; conceiving the savages 
not so barbarous or ferocious as to fire on two 
men (I had one with me) who were apparently 
coming into their country, trusting to their 
generosity; and knowing, that if we met only 
two or three we were equal to them, I having my 
55 



Masterpieces of Science 

gun and pistols and he his buckshot. Made 
some extra presents for New Year's day. 

January 2. Fine, warm day. Discovered 
fresh signs of Indians. Just as we were encamp- 
ing at night, my sentinel informed us that some 
Indians were coming at full speed upon our trail 
or track. I ordered my men to stand by their 
guns carefully. They were immediately at my 
camp, and saluted the flag by a discharge of three 
pieces, when four Chipeways, one Englishman, 
and a Frenchman of the North West Company 
presented themselves. They informed us that 
some women having discovered our trail gave 
the alarm, and not knowing but it was their 
enemies had departed to make a discovery. 
They had heard of us, and revered our flag. Mr. 
Grant, the Englishman, had only arrived the 
day before from Lake de Sable, from which he 
marched in one day and a half. I presented 
the Indians with half a deer, which they received 
thankfully, for they had discovered our fires 
some days ago, and believing them to be Sioux 
fires, they dared hot leave their camp. They 
returned home, but Mr. Grant remained all 
night. 

January J. My party marched early, but I 
returned with Mr. Grant to his establishment on 
the Red Cedar Lake, having one corporal with 
me." . . " After explaining to a Chipeway 

warrior, called Curly Head, the object of my 
voyage, and receiving his answer that he would 
remain tranquil until my return, we ate a good 
56 



The Sources of the Mississippi 

breakfast for the country, departed and over- 
took my sleds just at dusk. Killed one porcu- 
pine. Distance sixteen miles. 

January 4. We made twenty-eight points 
in the river; broad, good bottom, and of the usual 
timber. In the night I was awakened by the 
cry of the sentinel, calling repeatedly to the men; 
at length he vociferated, ' ' Will you let the lieuten- 
ant be burned to death?" This immediately 
aroused me ; at first I seized my arms, but looking 
round, I saw my tents in flames. The men flew 
to my assistance, and we tore them down, but 
not until they were entirely ruined. This, with 
the loss of my leggins, moccasins, and socks, 
which I had hung up to dry, was no trivial mis- 
fortune in such a country and on such a voyage. 
But I had reason to thank God that the powder, 
three small casks of which I had in my tent, did 
not take fire; if it had, I must certainly have lost 
all my baggage, if not my life. 

January 5. Mr. Grant promised to overtake 
me yesterday, but has not yet arrived. I con- 
ceived it would be necessary to attend his motions 
with careful observation. Distance twenty- 
seven miles. 

January 6. Bradley and myself walked up 
thirty-one points in hopes to discover Lake de 
Sable ; but finding a near cut of twenty yards for 
ten miles, and being fearful the sleds would miss 
it, we returned twenty-three points before we 
found our camp. They had made only eight 
points. Met two Frenchmen of the North West 
57 



Masterpieces of Science 

Company with about one hundred and eighty 
pounds on each of their backs, with rackets [snow- 
shoes] on; they informed me that Mr. Grant had 
gone on with the Frenchmen. Snow fell all day, 
and was three feet deep. Spent a miserable 
night. 

January 7. Made but eleven miles, and was 
then obliged to send ahead and make fires every 
three miles; notwithstanding which, the cold was 
so intense that some of the men had their noses, 
others their fingers, and others their toes, frozen, 
before they felt the cold sensibly. Very severe 
day's march. 

January 8. Conceiving I was at no great 
distance from Sandy Lake, I left my sleds and 
with Corporal Bradley took my departure for 
that place, intending to send him back the same 
evening. We walked on very briskly until 
near night, when we met a young Indian, one of 
those who had visited my camp near Red Cedar 
Lake. I endeavoured to explain to him that it 
was my wish to go to Lake de Sable that evening. 
He returned with me until we came to a trail 
that led across the woods; this he signified was 
a near course. I went this course with him, and 
shortly after found myself at a Chipeway encamp- 
ment, to which I believed the friendly savage 
had enticed me with the expectation that I would 
tarry all night, knowing that it was too late for 
us to make the lake in good season. But upon 
our refusing to stay, he put us in the right road. 
We arrived at the place where the track left the 
58 



The Sources of the Mississippi 

Mississippi at dusk, when we traversed about 
two leagues of a wilderness without any very 
great difficulty, and at length struck the shore 
of Lake de Sable, over a branch of which lay our 
course. The snow having covered the trail made 
by the Frenchmen who had passed before us with 
the rackets, I was fearful of losing ourselves on 
the lake; the consequences of which can only be 
conceived by those who have been exposed on a 
lake or naked plain, in a dreary night of January, 
in latitude 47 , and the thermometer below zero. 
Thinking that we could observe the bank of the 
other shore, we kept a straight course, and some 
time after discovered lights, and on our arrival 
were not a little surprised to find a large stockade. 
The gate being open, we entered and proceeded 
to the quarters of Mr. Grant, where we were 
treated with the utmost hospitality. 

January g. Sent away the corporal early, 
in order that our men should receive assurances 
of our safety and success. He carried with him 
a small keg of spirits, a present from Mr. Grant. 
The establishment of this place was formed 
twelve years since by the North West Company, 
and was formerly under the charge of Mr. Charles 
Brusky. It has attained at present such regu- 
larity as to permit the superintendent to live 
tolerably comfortably. They have horses they 
procure from Red River from the Indians; they 
raise plenty of potatoes, catch pike, suckers, 
pickerel, and white fish in abundance. They 
have also beaver, deer, and moose; but the pro- 
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Masterpieces of Science 

vision they chiefly depend upon is wild oats, of 
which they purchase great quantities from the 
savages, giving at the rate of about one dollar 
and a half a bushel. But flour, pork, and salt are 
almost interdicted to persons not principals in 
the trade. Flour sells at half a dollar, salt at a 
dollar, pork at eighty cents, sugar at fifty cents, 
and tea at four dollars and a half a pound. The 
sugar is obtained from the Indians, and is made 
from the maple tree. 

January 10.' Mr. Grant accompanied me to 
the Mississippi, to mark the place for my boats 
to leave the river. This was the first time I 
marched on rackets [snowshoes]. I took the 
course of the Lake River, from its mouth to the 
lake. Mr. Grant fell through the ice with his 
rackets on, and could not have got out without 
assistance. 

January n. Remained all day within quar- 
ters. 

January 12. Went out and met my men 
about sixteen miles. A tree had fallen on one of 
them and hurt him very much, which induced me 
to dismiss a sled and put the loading on the 
others. 

January ij. After encountering much dif- 
ficulty we arrived at the establishment of the 
North West Company on Lake de Sable a little 
before night. The ice being very bad on the 
Lake River, owing to the many springs and 
marshes, one sled fell through. My men had an 
excellent room furnished them, and were pre- 
60 



The Sources of the Mississippi 

sented with potatoes and spirits. Mr. Grant 
had gone to an Indian lodge to receive his credits. 

January 14. Crossed the lake to the north 
side, that I might take an observation; found the 
latitude 46 9' 20" N. Surveyed that part of 
the lake. Mr. Grant returned from the Indian 
lodges. His party brought a quantity of furs 
and eleven beaver carcasses. 

January ij. Mr. Grant and myself made 
the tour of the lake with two men whom I had 
for attendants. Found it to be much larger 
than could be imagined at a view. My men 
sawed stocks for the sleds, which I found it 
necessary to construct after the manner of the 
country. On our march, met an Indian coming 
into the fort ; his countenance expressed no little 
astonishment when I told him who I was and 
whence I came, for the people of this country 
acknowledge that the savages hold the Americans 
in greater veneration than any other white 
people. They say of us, when alluding to war- 
like achievements, that "we are neither French- 
men nor Englishmen, but white Indians." 

January 16. Laid down Lake de Sable. 
A young Indian whom I had engaged to go as a 
guide to Lake Sang Sue arrived from the woods. 

January 17. Employed in making sleds 
after the manner of the country. They are made 
of a single plank turned up at one end like a 
fiddle head, and the baggage is lashed on in bags 
and sacks. Two other Indians arrived from the 



61 



Masterpieces of Science 

January 18. Busy in preparing my baggage 
for my departure for Leech Lake and Reading. 

January 19. Employed as yesterday. Two 
men of the North West Company arrived from 
the Fond du Lac Superior with letters; one of 
which was from their establishment in Athapus- 
cow, and had been since last May on the route. 
While at this post I ate roasted beavers, dressed 
in every respect as a pig is usually dressed with 
us; it was excellent. I could not discern the 
least taste of Des Bois. I also ate boiled moose's 
head, which when well boiled I consider equal 
to the tail of the beaver; in taste and substance 
they are much alike. 

January 20. The men, with their sleds, 
took their departure about two o'clock. Shortly 
after I followed them. We encamped at the 
portage between the Mississippi and Leech Lake 
River. Snow fell in the night. 

January 21. Snowed in the morning, but 
crossed about 9 o'clock. I had gone on a few 
points when I was overtaken by Mr. Grant, who 
informed me that the sleds could not get along 
in consequence of water being on the ice; he sent 
his men forward; we returned and met the sleds, 
which had scarcely advanced one mile. We un- 
loaded them, sent eight men back to the post, 
with whatever might be denominated extra 
articles, but in the hurry sent my salt and ink. 
Mr. Grant encamped with me and marched early 
in the morning. 

January 22, Made a pretty good day's jour- 
62 



The Sources of the Mississippi 

ney. My Indian came up about noon. Distance 
twenty miles. 

January 2j. Marched about eighteen miles. 
Forgot my thermometer, having hung it on a 
tree. Sent Boley back five miles for it. My 
young Indian and myself killed eight partridges; 
took him to live with me. 

January 24. At our encampment this night 
Mr. Grant had encamped on the night of the same 
day he left me; it was three days' march for us. 
It was late before the men came up. 

January 25. Travelled almost all day 
through the lands and found them much better 
than usual. Boley lost the Sioux pipe-stem 
which I had carried along for the purpose of 
making peace with the Chipeways; I sent him 
back for it ; he did not return until eleven o'clock 
at night. It was very warm; thawing all day. 
Distance forty-four points. 

January 26. I left my party in order to 
proceed to a house, or lodge, of Mr. Grant's on the 
Mississippi, where he w T as to tarry until I over- 
took him. Took with me an Indian, Boley, 
and some trifling provision; the Indian and my- 
self marched so fast that we left Boley on the 
route, about eight miles from the lodge. Met 
Mr. Grant's men, on their return to Lake de 
Sable, having evacuated the house this morning, 
and Mr. Grant having marched for Leech Lake. 
The Indian and I arrived before sundown. 
Passed the night very uncomfortably, having 
nothing to eat, not much wood, nor any blankets. 
63 



Masterpieces of Science 

The Indian slept sound. I cursed his insen- 
sibility, being obliged to content myself over a 
few coals all night. Boley did not arrive. In 
the night the Indian mentioned something about 
his son. 

January 27. My Indian rose early, mended 
his moccasins, then expressed by signs some- 
thing about his son and the Englishmen we met 
yesterday. Conceiving that he wished to send 
some message to his family, I suffered him to 
depart. After his departure I felt the curse of 
solitude, although he was truly no company. 
Boley arrived about ten o'clock. He said that 
he had followed us until some time in the night, 
when, believing that he could overtake us, he 
stopped and made a fire, but having no axe to 
cut wood he was near freezing. He met the 
Indians, who made him signs to go on. I spent 
the day in putting my gun in order, and mended 
my moccasins. Provided plenty of wood, still 
found it cold, with but one blanket. 

January 28. Left our encampment at a 
good hour; unable to find any trail, passed 
through one of the most dismal cypress swamps 
I ever saw and struck the Mississippi at a small 
lake. Observed Mr. Grant's tracks going through 
it ; found his mark of a cut-off (agreed on between 
us) ; took it, and proceeded very well until we 
came to a small lake, where the trail was entirely 
hid, but after some search on the other side, 
found it, when we passed through a dismal 
swamp, on the other side of which we found a 
64 



The Sources of the Mississippi 

large lake, at which I was entirely at a loss, no 
trail to be seen. Struck for a point about three 
miles off, where we found a Chipeway lodge of 
one man and five children, and one old woman. 
They received us with every mark that distin- 
guished their barbarit}", such as setting their 
dogs on us, trying to thrust their hands into our 
pockets, and so on, but we convinced them that 
we were not afraid, and let them know that we 
were Chewockomen (Americans) , when they 
used us more civilly. After we had arranged a 
camp as well as possible I went into the lodge; 
they presented me with a plate of dried meat. 
I ordered Miller to bring- about two gills of liquor, 
which made us ail good friends. The old squaw 
gave me more meat, and offered me tobacco, 
which, not using, I did not take. I gave her an 
order upon my corporal for one knife and half a 
carrot of tobacco. Heaven clothes the lilies 
and feeds the raven, and the same Almighty 
Providence protects and preserves these crea- 
tures. After I had gone out to my fire, the old 
man came out and proposed to trade beaver 
skins for whiskey; meeting with a refusal he left 
me; when presently the old woman came out 
with a beaver skin, she also being refused, he 
again returned to the charge with a quantit} r of 
dried meat (this or any other I should have been 
glad to have had) when I gave him a peremptory 
refusal; then all further application ceased. It 
really appeared that with one quart of whiskey 
I might have bought all they were possessed of. 
65 



Masterpieces of Science 

Night remarkably cold, was obliged to sit up 
nearly the whole of it. Suffered much with 
cold and from want of sleep. 

January 31. Took my clothes into the In- 
dian's lodge to dress, and was received very 
coolly, but by giving him a dram (unasked) , 
and his wife a little salt, I received from them 
directions for my route. Passed the lake or 
morass, and opened on meadows (through 
which the Mississippi winds its course) of nearly 
fifteen miles in length. Took a straight course 
through them to the head, when I found we 
had missed the river; made a turn of about two 
miles and regained it. Passed a fork which I 
supposed to be Lake Winipie, making the 
course northwest; the branch we took was on 
Leech Lake branch, course southwest and 
west. Passed a very large meadow or prairie, 
course west, the Mississippi only fifteen yards 
wide. Encamped about one mile below the 
traverse of the meadow. Saw a very large ani- 
mal, which from its leaps I supposed to be a 
panther; but if so, it was twice as large as those 
on the lower Mississippi. He evinced some dis- 
position to approach. I lay down (Miller being 
in the rear) in order to entice him to come near, 
but he would not. The night remarkably cold. 
Some spirits, which I had in a small keg, con- 
gealed to the consistency of honey. 

February 1. Left our camp pretty early. 
Passed a continuous train of prairie, and arrived 
at Lake Sang Sue at half-past two o'clock. 
66 



The Sources of the Mississippi 

I will not attempt to describe my feelings on 
the accomplishment of my voyage, for this is 
the main source of the Mississippi. The Lake 
TVinipie branch is navigable from thence to 
Red Cedar Lake for the distance of five leagues, 
which is the extremity of the navigation. Crossed 
the lake twelve miles to the establishment of 
the Xorth "West Company, where we arrived 
about three o'clock; found all the gates locked, 
but upon knocking were admitted and received 
with marked attention and hospitalit} 7 by Mr. 
Hugh McGillis. Had a good dish of coffee, 
biscuit, butter and cheese for supper. 

February 2. Remained all day within doors. 
In the evening sent an invitation to Mr. Ander- 
son, who was an agent of Dickson, and also for 
some young Indians at his house, to come over 
and breakfast in the morning. 

February 3. Spent the day in reading 
Volney's "Egypt," proposing some queries to 
Mr. Anderson, and preparing my young men to 
return with a supply of provisions to my party. 

February 4. Miller departed this morning. 
Mr. Anderson returned to his quarters. My 
legs and ankles were so much swelled that I 
was not able to wear my own clothes, and was 
obliged to borrow some from Mr. McGillis. 

February 5. One of Mr. McGillis's clerks 
had been sent to some Indian lodges, and ex- 
pected to return in four days, but had now 
been absent nine. Mr. Grant was despatched, 
in order to find out what had become of him. 
87 



Masterpieces of Science 

February 6. My men arrived at the fort 
about four o'clock. Mr. McGillis asked if I had 
any objection to his hoisting their flag in com- 
pliment to ours. I made none, as I had not 
yet explained to him my ideas. In making a 
traverse of the lake some of my men had their 
ears, some their noses, and others their chins 
frozen. 

February 7. Remained within doors, my 
limbs being still very much swelled. Addressed 
a letter to Mr. McGillis on the subject of the 
North West Company's trade in this quarter. 

February 8. Took the latitude and found 
it to be 47 16' 13". Shot with our rifles. 

February g. M. McGillis and myself paid 
a visit to Mr. Anderson, an agent of Mr. Dickson, 
of the lower Mississippi, who resided at the 
west end of the lake. Found him eligibly situ- 
ated as to trade, but his houses bad. I rode in 
a cariole, for one person, constructed in the 
following manner: Boards planed smooth, 
turned up in front about two feet, coming to a 
point; about two and a half feet wide behind, 
on which is fixed a box covered with dressed 
skins painted; this box is open at the top, but 
covered in front about two-thirds of the length. 
The horse is fastened between the shafts. The 
rider wraps himself up in a buffalo robe, sits 
flat down, having a cushion to lean his back 
against. Thus accoutred with a fur cap, and 
so on, he may bid defiance to the wind and 
weather. Upon our return we found that some 
68 



The Sources of the Mississippi 

of the Indians had already returned from the 
hunting camps; also Monsieur Roussand, the 
gentleman supposed to have been killed by 
the Indians. His arrival with Mr. Grant diffused 
a general satisf acton through the fort. 

February 10. Hoisted the American flag 
in the fort. Reading "Shenstone," etc. 

February n. The Sweet, Buck, Burnt, 
and others arrived, all chiefs of note, but the 
former in particular, a venerable old man. 
From him I learned that the Sioux occupied 
this ground when, to use his own phrase, "He 
was made a man and began to hunt; that they 
occupied it the year that the French mission- 
aries were killed at the river Pacagama." The 
Indians flocked in. 

February 12. Bradley and myself with 
Mr. McGillis' and two of his men left Leech 
Lake at 10 o'clock, and arrived at the house of 
Red Cedar Lake at sunset, a distance of thirty 
miles. My ankles were very much swelled, 
and I was very lame. From the entrance of the 
Mississippi to the strait is called six miles, a 
southwest course. Thence to the south end, 
south thirty, east four miles. The bay at the 
entrance extends nearly east and west six miles. 
About two and a half from the north side to 
a large point. This may be called the upper 
source of the Mississippi, being fifteen miles 
above little Lake Winipie, and the extent of 
canoe navigation only two leagues to some of 
the Hudson's Bay waters. 
69 



MANILA IN 1842 
Lieutenant Charles Wilkes 

[During 1838-42 Lieutenant Wilkes commanded an explor- 
ing expedition which was the first ever despatched for scien - 
tific research by the United States. The instructions given 
by Congress to the Commander said: — "The expedition is 
not for conquest, but discovery. Its objects are all peaceful; 
they are to extend the empire of commerce and science; to 
diminish the hazards of the ocean, and point out to future 
navigators a course by which they may avoid dangers and 
find safety." The narrative of the expedition was pub- 
lished in five volumes in Philadelphia, 1845. The extracts 
which follow are from Vol. V., chapter VIII. From 1844 
to 1874 the Government of the United States published 
twenty-eight volumes reciting in detail the scientific results 
of the expedition.!] 

At daylight, on the 13th of January, 1842, 
we were again under way, with a light air, and 
at nine o'clock reached the roadstead, where 
we anchored in six fathoms of water, with good 
holding ground. 

A number of vessels were lying in the roads, 
among which were several Americans loading 
with hemp. There was also a large English 
East Indiaman, manned by Lascars, whose noise 
rendered her more like a floating Bedlam than 
anything else to which I can liken it. 

The view of the city and country around 
Manila partakes both of a Spanish and an Oriental 
character. The sombre and heavy-looking 
71 



Masterpieces of Science 

churches with their awkward towers; the long 
lines of batteries mounted with heavy cannon- 
the massive houses, with ranges of balconies- 
and the light and airy cottages, elevated on posts, 
situated in the luxuriant groves of tropical trees 
• — all excite desire to become better acquainted 
with the country. 

Manila is situated on an extensive plain, 
gradually swelling into distant hills, beyond 
which, again, mountains rise in the background, 
to the height of several thousand feet. The 
latter are apparently clothed with vegetation 
to their summits. The city is in strong contrast 
to this luxuriant scenery, bearing evident marks 
of decay, particularly in the churches, whose 
steeples and tile roofs have a dilapidated look. 
The site of the city does not appear to have 
been well chosen, it having apparently been 
selected entirely for the convenience of com- 
merce, and the communication that the outlet 
of the lake affords for the batteaux [freight 
boats] that transport the produce from the 
shores of the Laguna de Bay to the city. 

There are many arms or branches to this 
stream, which have been converted into canals; 
and almost any part of Manila may now be 
reached in a banca [small passage boat]. 

The canal is generally filled with coasting 
vessels, batteaux from the lake, and lighters for 
the discharge of the vessels lying in the roads. 
The bay of Manila is safe, excepting during the 
change of the monsoons, when it is subject to 
72 



Manila in 1842 

the typhoons of the China seas, within whose 
range it lies. These blow at times with much 
force, and cause great damage. Foreign vessels 
have, however, kept this anchorage, and rode 
out these storms in safety; but native as well 
as Spanish vessels seek at these times the port 
of Cavite, about three leagues to the southwest, 
at the entrance of the bay, which is perfectly 
secure. Here the government dockyard is situ- 
ated, and this harbour is consequently the 
resort of the few gunboats and galleys that are 
stationed here. 

The entrance to the canal or river Pasig is 
three hundred feet wide, and is enclosed between 
two well-constructed piers, which extend for 
some distance into the bay. On the end of one 
of these is the light -house, and on the other a 
guard-house. The walls of these piers are about 
four feet above ordinary high water, and in- 
clude the natural channel of the river, whose 
current sets out with some force, particularly 
when the ebb is making in the bay. 

The suburbs, or Binondo quarter, contain 
more inhabitants than the city itself, and is 
the commercial town. They have all the stir 
and life incident to a large population actively 
engaged in trade, and in this respect the con- 
trast with the city proper is great. 

The city of Manila is built in the form of a 

large segment of a circle, having the chord of 

the segment on the river: the whole is strongly 

fortified with walls and ditches. The houses are 

73 



Masterpieces of Science 

substantially built after the fashion of the 
mother country. Within the walls are the 
governor's palace, custom-house, treasury, ad- 
miralty, several churches, convents, and chari- 
table institutions, a university, and the barracks 
for the troops; it also contain some public 
squares, on one of which is a bronze statute of 
Charles IV. 

The city is properly deemed the court resi- 
dence of these islands; and all those attached 
to the government, or who wish to be consid- 
ered as of the higher circle, reside here; but 
foreigners are not permitted to do so. The 
houses in the city are generally of stone, plas- 
tered, and white or yellow washed on the outside. 
They are only two stories high, and in conse- 
quence cover a large space, being built around 
a patio or courtyard. 

The ground floors are occupied as storehouses, 
stables, and for porters' lodges. The second, story 
is devoted to the dining halls and sleeping 
apartments, kitchens, bath-rooms, etc. The 
bed-rooms have the windows down to the floor, 
opening on wide balconies, with blinds or shut- 
ters. These blinds are constructed with sliding 
frames, having small squares of two inches 
filled in with a thin semi-transparent shell, a 
species of Placuna; the fronts of some of the 
houses have a large number of these small lights, 
where the females of the family may enjoy 
themselves unperceived. 

After entering the canal, we very soon found 
74 



Manila in 1842 

ourselves among a motley and strange popula- 
tion. On landing, the attention is drawn to 
the vast number of small stalls and shops with 
which the streets are lined on each side, and 
to the crowds of people passing to and fro, all 
intent upon their several occupations. The 
artisans in Manila are almost wholly Chinese; 
and all trades are local, so that in each quar- 
ter of the Binondo suburb the privilege of 
exclusive occupancy is claimed by some par- 
ticular kinds of shops. In passing up the 
Escolta (which is the longest and main street 
in this district) , the cabinet-makers, seen busily 
at work in their shops, are first met with; 
next to these come the tinkers and blacksmiths; 
then the shoemakers, clothiers, fishmongers, 
haberdashers, etc. These are flanked by out- 
door occupations; and in each quarter are num- 
erous cooks frying cakes, stewing, etc., in mov- 
able kitchens; while here and there are to be 
seen betel-nut sellers, either moving about to 
obtain customers, or taking a stand in seme 
great thoroughfare. The moving throng, com- 
posed of carriers, waiters, messengers, etc., 
pass quietly and without any noise; they are 
generally seen with the Chinese umbrella, 
painted of many colours, screening themselves 
from the sun. The whole population wear 
slippers, and move along with a slip-shod gait. 

The Chinese are apparently far more numer- 
ous than the Malays, and the two races differ 
as much in character as in appearance: one is 
75 



Masterpieces of Science 

all activity, while the other is disposed to avoid 
all exertion. They preserve their distinctive 
character throughout, mixing but very little 
with each other, and are removed as far as 
possible in their civilities; the former, from 
their industry and perseverance, have almost 
monopolized all the lucrative employments 
among the lower orders, excepting the selling 
of fish and betel-nut, and articles manufactured 
in the provinces. 

Of all her foreign possessions, the Philippines 
have cost Spain the least blood and labour. 
The honour of their discovery belongs to Magal- 
haens, whose name is associated with the straits 
at the southern extremity of the American 
continent, but which has no memorial in these 
islands. Now that the glory whijh he gained 
by being the first to penetrate from the Atlantic 
to the Pacific has been in some measure ob- 
literated by the disuse of those straits by navi- 
gators, it would seem due to his memory that 
some spot among these islands should be set 
apart to commemorate the name of him who 
made them known to Europe. This would be 
but common justice to the discoverer of a 
region which has been a source of so much 
honour and profit to the Spanish nation, who 
opened the vast expanse of the Pacific to the fleets 
of Europe, and who died fighting to secure the 
benefits of his enterprise to his king and country. 

Few portions of the globe seem to be so 
much the seat of internal fires, or to exhibit 
76 



Manila in 1842 

the effects of volcanic action so strongly as the 
Philippines. During our visit, it was not known 
that any of the volcanoes were in action; but 
many of them were smoking, particularly that 
in the district of Albay, called Isaroc. Its latest 
eruption was in the year 1S39; but this did little 
damage compared with that of 18 14, which 
covered several villages, and the country for a 
great distance around, with ashes. This moun- 
tain is situated to the southeast of Manila one 
hundred and fifty miles, and is said to be a 
perfect cone, with a crater at its apex. 

It does not appear that the islands are much 
affected by earthquakes, although some have 
occasionally occurred that have done damage 
to the churches at Manila. 

The coal found in the Philippines is deemed 
of value; it has a strong resemblance to the 
bituminous coal of our own country, possesses 
a bright lustre, and appears very free from all 
woody texture when fractured. It is found 
associated with sandstone, which contains many 
fossils. Lead and copper are reported as being 
very abundant; gypsum and limestone occur 
in some districts. From this it will be seen that 
these islands have everything in the mineral 
way to constitute them desirable possessions. 

"With such mineral resources and a soil ca- 
pable of producing the most varied vegetation 
of the tropics, a liberal policy is all that the 
country lacks. The products of the Philippine 
Islands consist of sugar, coffee, hemp, indigo, 
77 



Masterpieces of Science 

rice, tortoise-shell, hides, ebony, saffron-wood, 
sulphur, cotton, cordage, silk, pepper, cocoa, 
wax, and many other articles. In their agri- 
cultural operations the people are industrious, 
although much labour is lost by the use of de- 
fective implements. The plow, of a very simple 
construction, has been adopted from the Chinese; 
it has no coulter, the share is flat, and being 
turned partly to one side, answers, in a certain 
degree the purpose of a mould-board. This rude 
implement is sufficient for the rich soils, where 
the tillage depends chiefly upon the harrow, 
in constructing which a thorny species of 
bamboo is used. The harrow is formed of five 
or six pieces of this material, on which the thorns 
are left, firmly fastened together. It answers 
its purpose well, and is seldom out of order. 
A wrought-iron harrow, that was introduced 
by the Jesuits, is used for clearing the ground 
more effectually, and more particularly for the 
purpose of extirpating a troublesome grass, 
that is known by the name of cogon (a species 
of Andropogon), of which it is very difficult 
to rid the fields. The bolo or long-knife, a basket, 
a hoe, complete the implements, and answer 
all the purposes of our spades, etc. 

The buffalo was used until within a few years 
exclusively in their agricultural operations, and 
they have lately taken to the use of the ox; 
but horses are never used. The buffalo, from 
the slowness of his motions, and his exceeding 
restlessness under the heat of the climate, is 
78 



Manila in 1842 

ill adapted to agricultural labour; but the natives 
are very partial to them, notwithstanding they 
occasion them much labour and trouble in 
bathing them during the great heat. This is 
absolutely necessary, or the animal becomes so 
fretful as to be unfit for use. If it were not for 
this, the buffalo would, notwithstanding his 
slow pace, be most effective in agricultural 
operations; he requires little food, and that of 
the coarsest kind; his strength surpasses that of 
the stoutest ox, and he is admirably adapted 
for the rice or paddy fields. They are very docile 
when used by the natives, and even children 
can manage them; but it said they have a great 
antipathy to the whites and all strangers. The 
usual mode of guiding them is by a small cord 
attached to the cartilage of the nose. The yoke 
rests on the neck before the shoulders, and is 
of simple construction. To this is attached 
whatever it may be necessary to draw, either 
by traces, shafts, or other fastenings. Fre- 
quently these animals may be seen with large 
bundles of bamboo lashed to them on each side. 
Buffaloes are to be met with on the lake with 
no more than their noses and eyes out of the 
water, and are not visible until they are ap- 
proached within a few feet, when they cause 
alarm to the passengers by raising their large 
forms close to the boat. It is said that they 
resort to the lake to feed on a favourite grass 
£hat grows on its bottom in shallow water, 
and which they dive for. Their flesh is not 
79 



Masterpieces of Science 

eaten, except that of the young ones, for it is 
tough and tasteless. The milk is nutritious, 
and of a character between that of the goat and 
cow. 

Rice is, perhaps, of their agricultural prod- 
ucts, the article upon which the inhabitants 
of the Philippine Islands most depend for food 
and profit; of this they have several different 
varieties, which the natives distinguish by their 
size and the shape of the grain: the birnambang, 
lamuyo, malagequit, bontot-cabayo, dumali, 
quinanda, bolohan, and tangi. The three first 
are aquatic, the five latter upland varieties. 
They each have their peculiar uses. The dumali 
is the early variety; it ripens in three months 
from planting, from which circumstance it 
derives its name; it is raised exclusively on the 
uplands. Although much esteemed, it is not 
extensively cultivated, as the birds and insects 
destroy a large part of the crop. 

The malagequit is very much prized, and 
used for making sweet and fanc}^ dishes; it 
becomes exceedingly glutinous, for which reason 
it is used in making whitewash, which it is said 
to cause to become of a brilliant white, and to 
withstand the weather. This variety is not, 
however, believed to be wholesome. There is 
also a variety of this last species which is used 
as food for horses, and supposed to be a remedy 
and preventive against worms. 

The rice grounds or fields are laid out in 
squares, and surrounded by embankments, to 
80 



Manila in 1842 

retain the water of the rains or streams. After 
the rains have fallen in sufficient quantities to 
saturate the ground, a seed-bed is generally 
planted in one corner of the field, in which the 
rice is sown broadcast, about the month of 
June. The heavy rains take place in August, 
when the fields are ploughed, and are soon filled 
with water. The young plants are about this 
time taken from the seed-bed, their tops and 
roots trimmed, and then planted in the field 
by making holes in the ground with the fingers 
and placing four or five sprouts in each of them; 
in this tedious labor the poor women are em- 
ployed, whilst the males are lounging in their 
houses or in the shade of the trees. 

The harvest for the aquatic rice begins in 
December. It is reaped with small sickles, 
peculiar to the country, called yatap; to the 
back of these a small stick is fastened, by which 
they are held, and the stalk is forced upon it 
and cut. The spikes of rice are cut with this 
implement, one by one. In this operation, men, 
women and children, all take part. 

The upland rice requires much more care and 
labour in its cultivation. The land must be 
ploughed three or four times, and all the turf and 
lumps well broken up by the harrow. 

During its growth it requires to be weeded 
two or three times, to keep the weeds from chok- 
ing the crop. The seed is sown broadcast in 
May. This kind of rice is harvested in November, 
and to collect the crop is still more tedious than 
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Masterpieces of Science 

in the other case, for it is always gathered earlier 
and never reaped, in consequence of the grain 
not adhering to the ear. If it were gathered 
in any other way, the loss by transportation 
on the backs of buffaloes and horses, without 
any covering to the sheaf, would be so great 
as to dissipate a great portion of the crop. 

After the rice is harvested, there are different 
modes of treating it. Some of the proprietors 
take it home, where it is thrown into heaps, 
and left until it is desirable to separate it from 
the straw, when it is trodden out by men and 
women with their bare feet. For this opera- 
tion they usually receive a fifth part of the 
rice. 

Others stack it in a wet and green state, 
which subjects it to heat, from which cause 
the grain contracts a dark colour and an un- 
pleasant taste and smell. The natives, however, 
impute these defects to the wetness of the 
season. 

The crop of both the low and upland rice is 
usually from thirty to fifty for one: this on old 
land; but on that which is newly cleared, or 
which has never been cultivated, the yield is 
far beyond this. In some soils of the latter 
description, it is said that for a chupa (seven 
cubic inches) planted the yield has been a 
caban. The former is the two-hundred-and- 
eighth part of the latter. This is not the only 
advantage gained in planting rice lands, but 
the saving of labour is equally great; for all 
82 



Manila in 1842 

that is required is to make a hole with the fingers 
and place three or four grains in it. The upland 
rice requires but little water, and is never irri- 
gated. 

The cultivator in the Philippine Islands is 
always enabled to secure plenty of manure; 
for vegetation is so luxuriant that by pulling 
the weeds and laying them with earth a good 
stock is quickly obtained with which to cover 
his fields. Thus, although the growth is so 
rank as to cause him labour, yet in this hot 
climate its decay is equally rapid, which tends 
to make his labours more successful. 

Among the important productions of these 
elands, I have mentioned hemp, although the 
article called Manila hemp must not be under- 
stood to be derived from the plant which pro- 
duces the common hemp (Canabis) , being ob- 
tained from a species of plantain (Musa textilis) , 
called in the Philippines "abaca." This is a 
native of these islands, and was formerly be- 
lieved to be found only on Mindanao; but this 
is not the case, for it is cultivated on the south 
part of Luzon and all the islands south of it. 
It grows on high ground, in rich soil, and is 
propagated by seeds. It resembles the other 
plants of the tribe of plantains, but its fruit is 
much smaller, although edible. The fibre is 
derived from the stem, and the plant attains 
the height of fifteen or twenty feet. The usual 
mode of preparing the hemp is to cut off the 
stem near the ground, before the time or just 
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Masterpieces of Science 

when the fruit is ripe. The stem is then eight 
or ten feet long below the leaves, where it is 
again cut. The outer coating of the herbaceous 
stem is then stripped off, until the fibres or 
cellular parts are seen, when it undergoes the 
process of rotting, and after being well dried 
in houses and sheds, is prepared for market 
by assorting it, a task which is performed by 
the women and children. That which is in- 
tended for cloth is soaked for an hour or two 
in weak lime-water prepared from sea-shells, 
again dried, and put up in bundles. From all 
the districts in which it grows, it is sent to Manila, 
which is the only port whence it can legally 
be exported. It arrives in large bundles, and 
is packed there by means of a screw-press in 
compact bales, for shipping, secured by rattan, 
each weighing two piculs. [A picul is about 
140 pounds.] 

The best Manila hemp ought to be white, dry, 
and of a long and fine fibre. This is known at 
Manila by the name of lupis ; the second quality 
they call bandala. 

That which is brought to the United States 
is principally manufactured in or near Boston, 
and is the cordage known as "white rope." 
The cordage manufactured at Manila is, how- 
ever, very superior to the rope made with us, 
although the hemp is of the inferior kind. 
A large quantity is also manufactured into 
mats. 

In the opinion of our botanist, it is not prob- 
84 



Manila in 1842 

able that the plant could be introduced with 
success into our country, for in the Philippines 
it is not found north of latitude 14 N. 

The coffee-plant is well adapted to these 
islands. A few plants were introduced into the 
gardens of Manila about fifty years ago, since 
which time it has been spread all over the island, 
as is supposed, by the civet-cats, which, after 
swallowing the seeds, carry them to a distance 
before they are voided. 

The coffee of commerce is obtained here from 
the wild plant, and is of an excellent quality. 
Upwaids of three thousand five hundred piculs 
are now exported, of which one-sixth goes to 
the United States. 

The sugar-cane thrives well here. It is planted 
after the French fashion, by sticking the piece 
diagonally into the ground. Some, finding the 
cane has suffered in times of drought, have 
adopted other modes. It comes to perfection 
in a year, and they seldom have two crops 
from the same piece of land, unless the season 
is very favourable. 

There are many kinds of cane cultivated, 
but that grown in the valley of Pampanga is 
thought to be the best. It is a small, red variety, 
from four to five feet high, and not thicker than 
the thumb. The manufacture of the sugar is 
rudely conducted; and the whole business, I 
was told, was in the hands of a few capitalists, 
who, by making advances, secure the whole 
crop from those who are employed to bring it 
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Masterpieces of Science 

to market. It is generally brought in moulds of 
the usual conical shape, called pilones, which are 
delivered to the purchaser from November to 
June, and contain each about one hundred and 
fifty pounds. On their receipt they are placed 
in large storehouses, where the familiar opera- 
tion of claying is performed. The estimate 
for the quantity of sugar from these pilones 
after this process is about one hundred 
pounds; it depends upon the care taken in the 
process. 

Of cotton they raise a considerable quantity, 
and principally of the yellow nankeen. In the 
province of Ylocos it is cultivated most ex- 
tensively. The mode of cleaning it of its seed 
is very rude, by means of a hand-mill, and the 
expense of cleaning a picul (one hundred and 
forty pounds) is from five to seven dollars. 
There have, as far as I have understood, been 
no endeavours to introduce any cotton-gins 
from our country. 

It will be merely necessary to give the prices 
at which labourers are paid to show how the 
compensation is in comparison with that in 
our country. In the vicinity of Manila, twelve 
and a half cents per day is the usual wages; 
this in the provinces falls to six and nine cents. 
A man with two buffaloes is paid about thirty 
cents. The amount of labour performed by the 
latter in a day would be the ploughing of a 
soane, about two-tenths of an acre. The most 
profitable way of employing labourers is by the 
86 



Manila in 1842 

task, when, it is said, the natives work well, 
and are industrious. 

The manner in which the sugar and other 
produce is brought to market at Manila is pe- 
culiar, and deserves to be mentioned. In some 
of the villages the chief men unite to build a 
vessel, generally a pirogue, in which they em- 
bark their produce, under the conduct of a 
few persons, who go to navigate it, and dispose 
of the cargo. In due time they make their 
voyage, and when the accounts are settled, 
the returns are distributed to each according 
to his share. Festivities are then held, the 
saints thanked for their kindness, and blessings 
invoked for another year. After this is over, the 
vessel is taken carefully to pieces, and distrib- 
uted among the owners, to be preserved for the 
next season. 

The profits in the crops, according to esti- 
mates, vary from sixty to one hundred per cent.; 
but it was thought, as a general average, that 
this was, notwithstanding the great productive- 
ness of the soil, far beyond the usual profits 
accruing from agricultural operations. In some 
provinces this estimate would hold good, and 
probably be exceeded. 

Indigo would probably be a lucrative crop, 
for that raised here is said to be of a quality 
equal to the best, and the crop is not subject 
to so many uncertainties as in India: the capital 
and attention required in vats, etc., prevent it 
from being raised in any quantities. Among 
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Masterpieces of Science 

the productions, the bamboo and rattan ought 
to claim a particular notice from their great 
utility: they enter into almost everything. Of 
the former their houses are built, including 
frames, floors, sides, and roof; fences are made 
of the same material, as well as every article 
of general household use, including baskets for 
oil and water. The rattan is a general substitute 
for ropes of all descriptions, and the two com- 
bined are used in constructing rafts for crossing 
ferries. 

The crops frequently suffer from the ravages 
of the locusts, which sweep all before them. 
Fortunately for the poorer classes, their attacks 
take place after the rice has been harvested; 
but the cane is sometimes entirely cut off. 
The authorities of Manila, in the vain hope of 
stopping their devastations, employ persons to 
gather them and throw them into the sea. I 
understood on one occasion they had spent 
eighty thousand dollars in this way, but all to 
little purpose. It is said that the crops rarely 
suffer from droughts, but on the contrary the 
rains are thought to fall too often and to flood 
the rice fields; these, however, yield a novel 
crop, and are very advantageous to the poor, 
viz.: a great quantity of fish, which are called 
dalag, and are a species of Blunnius; they are 
so plentiful that they are caught with baskets; 
these fish weigh from a half to two pounds, and 
some are said to be eighteen inches long; but 
this is not all; they are said, after a deep 
. 88 



Manila in 1842 

inundation, to be found even in the vaults of 
churches. 

The Philippines are divided into thirty-one 
provinces, sixteen of which are on the island 
of Luzon, and the remainder comprise the 
other islands of the group and the Ladrones. 

The population of the whole group is above 
three millions, including all tribes of natives, 
mestizoes, and whites. The latter-named class 
are but few in number, not exceeding three 
thousand. The mestizoes were supposed to be 
about fifteen or twenty thousand; they are 
distinguished as Spanish and Indian mestizoes. 
The Chinese have of late years increased to a 
large number, and it is said that there are forty 
thousand of them in and around Manila alone. 
One-half of the whole population belongs to 
Luzon. The island next to it in number of in- 
habitants is Panay, which contains about three 
hundred and thirty thousand. Then come 
Zebu, Mindanao, Leyte, Samar, and Negros, 
varying from the above numbers down to fifty 
thousand. The population is increasing, and 
it is thought that it doubles itself in seventy 
years. This rate of increase appears probable, 
from a comparison of the present population 
with the estimate made at the beginning of the 
present century, which shows a growth in 
forty years of about one million four hundred 
thousand. 

The native population is composed of a number 
of distinct tribes, the principal of which in 



Masterpieces of Science 

Luzon are Pangarihan, Ylocos, Cagayan, Tagala, 
and Pampangan. 

The Irogotes, who dwell in the mountains, 
are the only natives who have not been sub- 
jected by the Spaniards. The other tribes have 
become identified with their rulers in religion, 
and it is thought that by this circumstance 
alone has Spain been able to maintain the 
ascendency, with so small a number, over such 
a numerous, intelligent, and energetic race as 
they are represented to be. This is, however, 
more easily accounted for, from the Spaniards 
fostering and keeping alive the jealousy and 
hatred that existed at the time of the discovery 
between the different tribes. 

It seems almost incredible that Spain should 
have so long persisted in the policy of allowing 
no more than one galleon to pass annually 
between her colonies, and equally so that the 
nations of Europe should have been so long 
deceived in regard to the riches and wealth 
that Spain was monopolizing in the Philippines. 
The capture of Manila, in 1762, by the English, 
first gave a clear idea of the value of this remote 
and little-known appendage of the empire. 

The Philippines, considered in their capacity 
for commerce, are certainly among the most 
favoured portions of the globe, and there is 
but one circumstance that tends in the least 
degree to lessen their apparent advantage; this 
is the prevalence of typhoons in the China 
seas, which are occasionally felt with force to 
90 



Manila in 1842 

the north of latitude io° N. South of that 
parallel they have never been known to pre- 
vail, and seldom so far; but from their unfailing 
occurrence yearly in some part of the China 
seas, they are looked for with more or less dread, 
and cause each season a temporary interruption 
in all the trade that passes along the coast of 
these islands. 

The army is now composed entirely of native 
troops, who number about six thousand men, 
and the regiments are never suffered to serve 
in the provinces in which they are recruited, 
but those from the north are sent to the south, 
and vice versa. There they are employed to 
keep a continual watch on each other; and, 
speaking different dialects, they never become 
identified. 

They are, indeed, never allowed to remain 
long enough in one -region to imbibe any feel- 
ings in unison with those of its inhabitants. 
The hostility is so great among the regiments 
that mutinies have occurred, and contests 
arisen which have produced even bloodshed, 
which it was entirely out of the power of the 
officers to prevent. In cases of this kind, sum- 
mary punishment is resorted to. 

Although the Spaniards, as far as is known 
abroad, live in peace and quiet, this is far from 
being the case; for rebellion and revolts among 
the troops and tribes are not unfrequent in 
the provinces. During the time of our visit 
one of these took place, but it was impossible 
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Masterpieces of Science 

to learn anything concerning it that could be 
relied upon, for all conversation respecting 
such occurrences is interdicted by the govern- 
ment. The difficulty to which I refer was said 
to have originated from the preaching of a 
fanatic priest, who inflamed them to such a 
degree that they overthrew the troops and 
became temporarily masters of the country. 
Prompt measures were immediately taken, 
and orders issued to give the rebels no quarter; 
the regiments most hostile to those in the revolt 
were ordered to the spot; they spared no one; 
the priest and his companions were taken, 
put to death, and according to report, in a 
manner so cruel as to be a disgrace to the records 
of the nineteenth century. Although I should 
hope the accounts I heard of these transactions 
were incorrect, yet the detestation these acts 
were held in would give some colour to the 
statements. 

The few gazettes that are published at Manila 
are entirely under the control of the govern- 
ment; and a resident of that city must make 
up his mind to remain in ignorance of the things 
that are passing around him, or believe just 
what the authorities will allow to be told, 
whether truth or falsehood. The government 
of the Philippines is emphatically an iron rule ; 
how long can it continue so is doubtful. 

The natives of the Philippines are industrious. 
They manufacture an amount of goods suffi- 
cient to supply their own wants, particularly 
92 



Manila in 1842 

from Panay and Ylocos. These, for the most 
part, consist of cotton and silks, and a peculiar 
article called pina. The latter is manufactured 
from a species of Bromelia (pine-apple) , and 
comes principally from the island of Panay. 
The finest kinds of pina are exceedingly beautiful 
and surpass any other material in its evenness 
and beauty of texture. Its colour is yellowish, 
and the embroidery is fully equal to the material. 
It is much sought after by all strangers, and 
considered as one of the curiosities of this group. 
Various reports have been stated of the 
mode of its manufacture, and among others 
that it was woven under water, which I found, 
upon inquiry, to be quite erroneous. The web 
of the pina is so fine that they are obliged to 
prevent all currents of air from passing through 
the rooms where it is manufactured, for which 
purpose there are gauze screens in the windows. 
After the article is brought to Manila, it is then 
embroidered by girls; this last operation adds 
greatly to its value. 

The market is a never-failing place of amuse- 
ment to a foreigner; for there a crowd of the 
common people is always to be seen, and their 
mode of conducting business may be observed. 
The canals here afford great facilities for bring- 
ing vegetables and produce to market in a fresh 
state. The vegetables are chiefly brought 
from the shores of the Laguna de Bay, through 
the river Pasig. The meat appeared inferior, 
and as in all Spanish places the art of butcher- 
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Masterpieces of Science 

ing is not understood. The poultry, however, 
surpasses that of any other place I have seen, 
particularly in ducks, the breeding of which is 
pursued to a great extent. Establishments for 
breeding these birds are here carried on in a 
systematic manner, and are a great curiosity. 
They consist of many small enclosures, each 
about twenty feet by forty or fifty, made of 
bamboo, which are placed on the bank of the 
river, and partly covered with water. In one 
corner of the enclosure is a small house, where 
the eggs are hatched by artificial heat, produced 
by rice-chaff in a state of fermentation. It is 
not uncommon to see six or eight hundred 
ducklings all of the same age. There are several 
hundreds of these enclosures, and the number 
of ducks of all ages may be computed at millions. 
The manner in which they are schooled to take 
exercise, and to go in and out of the water, 
and to return to their hotise, almost exceeds 
belief. The keepers or tenders are of the Tagala 
tribe, who live near the enclosures, and have 
them at all times under their eye. The old 
birds are not suffered to approach the young, 
and all of one age are kept together. They are 
fed upon rice and a small species of shell-fish 
that is found in the river and is peculiar to it. 
From the extent of these establishments we 
inferred that ducks were the favourite article 
of food at Manila, and the consumption of them 
must be immense. The markets are well supplied 
with chickens, pigeons, young partridges, which 
94 



Manila in 1842 

are brought in alive, and turkeys. Among 
strange articles that we saw for sale were cakes 
of coagulated blood. The markets are well 
stocked with a variety of fish, taken both in the 
Laguna and bay of Manila, affording a supply 
of both the fresh and salt water species, and 
many smaller kinds that are dried and smoked. 
Vegetables are in great plenty, and consist of 
pumpkins, lettuce, onions, radishes, very long 
squashes, etc. ; of fruits they have melons, 
chicos, durians, marbolas, and oranges. 

Fish are caught in weirs, by the hook, or in 
seines. The former are constructed of bamboo 
stakes, in the shallow water of the lake, at the 
point where it flows through the river Pasig. In 
the bay, and at the mouth of the river, the fish are 
taken in nets, suspended by the four corners from 
hoops attached to a crane, by which they are 
lowered into the water. The fishing-boats are 
little better than rafts, and are called saraboas. 

The usual passage-boat is termed banca, 
and is made of a single trunk. These are very 
much used by the inhabitants. They have a 
sort of awning to protect the passenger from 
the rays of the sun ; and being light are easily 
rowed about, although they are exceedingly 
uncomfortable to sit in, from the lowness of 
the seats, and liable to overset if the weight is 
not placed near the bottom. The out-rigger has 
in all probability been dispensed with, owing 
to the impediment it offered to the navigation 
of their canals; these canals offer great facilities 
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Masterpieces of Science 

for the transportation of burdens; the banks of 
almost all of them are faced with granite. 
Where the streets cross them, there are sub- 
stantial stone bridges, which are generally of 
no more than one arch, so as not to impede the 
navigation. The barges used for the transporta- 
tion of produce resemble our canal-boats, and 
have sliding roofs to protect them from the rain. 

Water for the supply of vessels is brought 
off in large earthen jars. It is obtained from the 
river, and if care is not taken, the water will be 
impure; it ought to be filled beyond the city. 
Our supply was obtained five or six miles up 
the river by a lighter, in which were placed 
a number of water-casks. It proved excellent. 

The country around Manila, though no more 
than an extended plain for some miles, is one 
of great interest and beauty, and affords many 
agreeable rides on the roads to Santa Anna 
and Maraquino. Most of the country-seats are 
situated on the river Pasig; they may indeed 
be called palaces, from their extent and appear- 
ance. They are built upon a grand scale, and 
after the Italian style, with terraces, supported 
by strong abutments, decked with vases of 
plants. The grounds are ornamented with the 
luxuriant, lofty, and graceful trees of the tropics; 
these are tolerably well kept. Here and there 
fine large stone churches, with their towers and 
steeples, are to be seen, the whole giving the 
impression of a wealthy nobility and a happy 
and nourishing peasantry. 
96 



THE ASCENT OF MOUNT TYNDALL! 

Clarence King. 

[In 1864 Prof essor Josiah Dwight Whitney, State Geologist 
of California, sent a band of five explorers for a summer's 
campaign in the high Sierras. Clarence King was assistant 
geologist of the party ; he recounted their researches and ad- 
ventures in "Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada," pub- 
lished in 1 87 1 by J. R. Osgood & Co., Boston ; three years later 
the same firm issued an enlarged edition with maps. "The 
Ascent of Mount Tyndall, " the third chapter of the book, 
is one of the most thrilling stories of adventure ever written. 
Clarence King suggested and organized the United States 
Geological Survey, and was its director 1878-81. He died 
in 1 90 1.] 

Morning dawned brightly upon our bivouac 
among a cluster of dark firs in the mountain cor- 
ridor, opened by an ancient glacier of King's 
River in the heart of the Sierras. It dawned a 
trifle sooner than we could have wished, but Pro- 
fessor Brewer and Hoffman had breakfasted 
before sunrise, and were off with barometer and 
theodolite upon their shoulders, proposing to 
ascend our amphitheatre to its head and climb a 
great pyramidal peak which swelled up against 
the eastern sky, closing the view in that direction. 

We, who remained in camp, spent the day in 
overhauling campaign materials and preparing 
for a grand assault upon the summits. For a 
couple of hours we could descry our friends 
through the field-glasses, their minute black 
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Masterpieces of Science 

forms moving slowly on among piles of giant 
debris; now and then lost, again coming into 
view, and at last disappearing altogether. 

It was twilight of evening and almost eight 
o'clock when they came back to camp, Brewer 
leading the way, Hoffman following; and as they 
sat down by our fire without uttering a word we 
read upon their faces terrible fatigue. 

So we hastened to give them supper of coffee 
and soup, bread and venison, which resulted, 
after a time, in our getting in return the story 
of the day. 

For eight whole hours they had worked up 
over granite and snow, mounting ridge after 
ridge, till the summit was made about two 
o'clock. 

These snowy crests bounding our view at the 
eastward we had all along taken to be the sum- 
mits of the Sierra, and Brewer had supposed him- 
self to be climbing a dominant peak, from which 
he might look eastward over Owen's Valley and 
out upon leagues of desert. Instead of this a 
vast wall of mountains, lifted still higher than his 
peak, rose beyond a tremendous canon which lay 
like a trough between the two parallel ranks of 
peaks. Hoffman showed us on his sketch-book 
the profile of this new range, and I instantly 
recognized the peaks which I had seen from 
Mariposa, whose great white pile had led me to 
believe them the highest points of California. 

For a couple of months my friends had made 
me the target of plenty of pleasant banter about 
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The Ascent of Mount Tyndall 

my "highest land," which they lost faith in as 
we climbed from Thomas's Mill, — I too becoming 
a trifle anxious about it ; but now the truth had 
burst upon Brewer and Hoffman they could not 
find words to describe the terribleness and grand- 
eur of the deep canon, nor for picturing those 
huge crags towering in line at the east. Their 
peak, as indicated by the barometer, was in the 
region of 13,400 feet, and a level across to the 
farther range showed its crests to be at least 
1,500 feet higher. They had spent hours upon 
the summit scanning the eastern horizon, and 
ranging downward into the labyrinth of gulfs 
below, and had come at last with reluctance to 
the belief that to cross this gorge and ascend the 
eastern wall of peaks wasutterly impossible. 

Brewer and Hoffman were old climbers, and 
their verdict of impossible oppossed me as I 
lay awake thinking about it; but early next 
morning I had made up my mind, and, taking 
Cotter aside, I asked him in an easy manner 
whether he would like to penetrate the Unknown 
Land with me at the risk of our necks, provided 
Brewer should consent. In frank, courageous 
tone he answered after his usual mode, "Why 
not?" Stout of limb, stronger yet in heart, of 
iron endurance, and a quiet, unexcited tempera- 
ment, and, better yet, deeply devoted to me, I 
felt that Cotter was the one comrade I would 
choose to face death with, for I believed 
there was in his manhood no room for fear or 
shirk. 

99 
L.cfC. 



Masterpieces of Science 

It was a trying moment for Brewer when we 
found him and volunteered to attempt a cam- 
paign for the top of California, because he felt a 
certain fatherly responsibility over our youth, 
a natural desire that we should not deposit our 
triturated Remains in some undiscoverable hole 
among the feldspathic granites; but, like a true 
disciple of science, this was at last overbalanced 
by his intense desire to know more of the un- 
explored region. He freely confessed that he 
believed the plan madness, and Hoffman, too, 
told us we might as well attempt to get on a 
cloud as to try the peak. 

As Brewer gradually yielded his consent, I 
saw by his conversation that there was a pos- 
sibility of success ; so we spent the rest of the day 
in making preparations. 

Our walking shoes were in excellent condition, 
the hobnails firm and new. We laid out a ba- 
rometer, a compass, a pocket-level, a set of wet 
and dry thermometers, note-books, with bread, 
cooked beans, and venison enough to last a week, 
rolled them all in blankets, making two knapsack- 
shaped packs strapped firmly together with loops 
for the arms, which, by Brewer's estimate, 
weighed forty pounds apiece. 

Gardner declared he would accompany us to 
.the summit of the first range to look over into 
the gulf we were to cross, and at last Brewer and 
Hoffman also concluded to go up with us. 

Quite too early for our profit we all betook our- 
selves to bed, vainly hoping to get a long refresh- 
100 



The Ascent of Mount Tyndall 

ing sleep from which we should rise ready for our 
tramp. 

Never a man welcomed those first gray streaks 
in the east gladder than I did, unless it may be 
Cotter, who has in later years confessed that he 
did not go to sleep that nihgt. Long before sun- 
rise we had done our breakfast and were under 
way, Hoffman kindly bearing my pack, and 
Brewer Cotter's. 

Our way led due east up the amphitheatre 
and toward Mount Brewer, as we had named the 
great pyramidal peak. 

Awhile after leaving camp, slant sunlight 
streamed in among gilded pinnacles along the 
slope of Mount Brewer, touching here and there, 
in broad dashes of yellow, the gray walls, which 
rose sweeping up on either side like the sides of 
a ship. 

Our way along the valley's middle ascended 
over a number of huge steps, rounded and abrupt, 
at whose bases were pools of transparent snow- 
water edged with rude piles of erratic glacier 
blocks, scattered companies of alpine firs, of red 
bark and having cypress-like darkness of foliage, 
with fields of snow under sheltering cliffs, and 
bits of softest velvet meadow clouded with 
minute blue and white flowers. 

As we climbed, the gorge grew narrow and 
sharp, both sides wilder; and the spurs which 
projected from them, nearly overhanging the 
middle of the valley, towered above us with more 
and more severe sculpture. We frequently 
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Masterpieces of Science 

crossed deep fields of snow, and at last reached 
the level of the highest pines, where long slopes 
of debris swept down from either cliff, meeting 
in the middle. Over and among these immense 
blocks, often twenty and thirty feet high, we 
were obliged to climb, hearing far below us the 
subterranean gurgle of streams. 

Interlocking spurs nearly closed the gorge 
behind us; our last view was out a granite gate- 
way formed of two nearly vertical precipices, 
sharp-edged, jutting buttress-like, and plunging 
down into a field of angular boulders which fill 
the valley bottom. 

The eye ranged out from this open gateway 
overlooking the great King's Canon with its 
moraine-terraced walls, the domes of granite 
upon Big Meadows, and the undulating stretch 
of forest which descends to the plain. 

The gorge turning southward, we rounded a 
sort of mountain promontory, which, closing 
the view behind us, shut us up in the bottom of 
a perfect basin. In front lay a placid lake reflect- 
ing the intense black-blue of the sky. Granite, 
stained with purple and red, sank into it. upon 
one side, and a broad spotless field of snow came 
down to its margin on the other. 

From a pile of large granite blocks, forty or 
fifty feet up above the lake margin, we could 
look down fully a hundred feet through the trans- 
parent water- to where boulders and pebbles were 
strewn upon the stone bottom. We had now 
reached the base of Mount Brewer and were 
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The Ascent of Mount Tyndall 

skirting its southern spurs in a wide open cor- 
ridor surrounded in all directions by lofty granite 
crags from two to four thousand feet high ; above 
the limits of vegetation, rocks, lakes of deep 
heavenly blue, and white trackless snows were 
grouped closely about us. Two sounds, a sharp 
little cry of martens and occasional heavy 
crashes of falling rock, saluted us. 

Climbing became exceedingly difficult, light 
air — for we had already reached 12,500 feet — 
beginning to tell on our lungs to such an extent 
that my friend, who had taken turns with me in 
carrying my pack, was unable to do so any 
longer, and I adjusted it to my own shoulders 
for the rest of the da}^. 

After four hours of slow laborious work we 
made the base of the debris slope which rose 
about a thousand feet to a saddle pass in the 
western mountain wall, that range upon which 
Mount Brewer is so prominent a point. We 
were nearly an hour in toiling up this slope over 
an uncertain footing which gave way at almost 
every step. At last, when almost at the top, 
we paused to take breath, and then all walked 
out upon the crest, laid off our packs, and sat 
down together upon the summit of the ridge, and 
for a few minutes not a word was spoken. 

The Sierras are here two parallel summit 
ranges. We were upon the crest of the western 
range, and looked down into a gulf 5,000 feet 
deep, sinking from our feet in abrupt cliffs nearly 
or quite 2,000 feet, whose base plunged into a 
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Masterpieces of Science 

broad field of snow lying steep and smooth for a 
great distance, but broken near its foot by craggy 
steps often a thousand feet high. 

Vague blue haze obscured the lost depths, 
hiding details, giving a bottomless distance out 
of which, like the breath of wind, floated up a 
faint treble, vibrating upon the senses, yet 
never clearly heard. 

Rising on the other side, cliff above cliff, preci- 
pice piled upon precipice, rock over rock, up 
against sky, towered the most gigantic mountain- 
wall in America, culminating in a noble pile of 
gothic-finished granite and enamel-like snow. 
How grand and inviting looked its white form, 
its untrodden, unknown crest, so high and pure 
in the clear strong blue ! I looked at it as one 
contemplating the purpose of his. life; and for 
just one moment I would have rather liked to 
dodge that purpose, or to have waited, or to have 
found some excellent reason why I might not 
go; but all this quickly vanished, leaving a cheer- 
fid resolve to go ahead. 

From the two opposing mountain-walls sin- 
gular, thin, knife-blade ridges of stone jutted 
out, dividing the sides of the gulf into a series of 
amphitheatres, each one a labyrinth of ice and 
rock. Piercing thick beds of snow, sprang up 
knobs and straight isolated spires of rock, mere 
obelisks curiously carved by frost, their rigid 
slender forms casting a blue, sharp shadow upon 
the snow. Embosomed in depressions of ice, or 
resting on broken ledges, were azure lakes, deeper 
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The Ascent of Mount Tyndall 

in tone than the sky, which at this altitude, even 
at midday, has a violet duskiness. 

To the south, not more than eight miles, a wall 
of peaks stood across the gulf, dividing the 
King's, which flowed north at our feet, from the 
.Kern River, that flowed down the trough in the 
opposite direction. 

I did not wonder that Brewer and Hoffman 
pronounced our undertaking impossible; but 
when I looked at Cotter there was such complete 
bravery in his eye that I asked him if he were 
ready to start. His old answer, "Why not?,' 3 ' 
left the initiative with me; so I told Professor 
Brewer that we would bid him good-bye. Our 
friends helped us on with our packs in silence, 
and as we shook hands there was not a dry eye 
in the party. Before he let go of my hand Pro- 
fessor Brewer asked me for my plan, and I had 
to own that I had but one, which was to reach 
the highest peak in the range. 

After looking in every direction I was obliged 
to confess that I saw as yet no practicable way. 
We bade them a "good-bye," receiving their 
"God bless you" in return, and started south- 
ward along the range to look for some possible 
cliff to descend. Brewer, Gardner, and Hoffman 
turned north to push upward to the summit of 
Mount Brewer, and complete their observations. 
We saw them whenever we halted, until at last, 
on the very summit, their microscopic forms 
were for the last time visible. With very great 
difficulty we climbed a peak which surmounted 
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Masterpieces of Science 

our wall just to the south of the pass, and, looking 
over the eastern brink, found that the precipice 
was still sheer and unbroken. In one place, 
where the snow lay against it to the very top, we 
went to its edge and contemplated the slide. 
About three thousand feet of unbroken white, at 
a fearfully steep angle, lay below us. We threw 
a stone over it and watched it bound until it 
was lost in the distance; after fearful leaps we 
could only detect it by the flashings of snow 
where it struck, and as these were in some in- 
stances three hundred feet apart, we decided not 
to launch our own valuable bodies, and the still 
more precious barometer, after it. 

There seemed but one possible way to reach 
our goal; that was to make our way along the 
summit of the cross ridge which projected be- 
tween the two ranges This divide sprang out 
from our Mount Brewer wall, about four miles 
to the south of us. To reach it we must climb 
up and down over the indented edge of the Mount 
Brewer wall. In attempting to do this we had 
a rather lively time scaling a sharp granite needle, 
where we found our course completely stopped 
by precipices four and five hundred feet in height. 
Ahead of us the summit continued to be broken 
into fantastic pinnacles, leaving us no hope of 
making our way along it; so we sought the most 
broken part of the eastern descent, and began 
to climb down. The heavy knapsacks, besides 
wearing our shoulders gradually into a black- 
and-blue state, overbalanced us terribly, and 
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The Ascent of Mount Tyndall 

kept us in constant danger of pitching headlong. 
At last, taking them off, Cotter climbed down 
until he found a resting-place upon a cleft of 
rock, then I lowered them to him with our lasso, 
afterwards descending cautiously to his side, 
taking my turn in pioneering downward, receiv- 
ing the freight of knapsacks as before. In this 
manner we consumed more that half the after- 
noon in descending a thousand feet of broken, 
precipitous slope ; and it was almost sunset when 
we found ourselves upon fields of level snow 
which lay white and thick over the whole interior 
slope of the amphitheatre. The gorge below us 
seemed utterly impassable. At our backs the 
Mount Brewer wall either rose in sheer cliffs or 
in broken, rugged stairway, such as had offered 
us our descent. From this cruel dilemma the 
cross divide furnished the only hope, and the 
sole chance of scaling that was at its junction 
with the Mount Brewer wall. Toward this 
point we directed our course, marching wearily 
over stretches of dense frozen snow, and regions 
of debris, reaching about sunset the last alcove 
of the amphitheatre, just at the foot of the Mount 
Brewer Avail. It was evidently impossible for 
us to attempt to climb it that evening, and we 
looked about the desolate recesses for a sheltered 
camping-spot. A high granite wall surrounded 
us upon three sides, recurring to the southward 
in long elliptical curves; no part of the summit 
being less than 2,000 feet above us, the higher 
crags not infrequently reaching 3,000 feet. A 
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Masterpieces of Science 

single field of snow swept around the base of the 
rock, and covered the whole amphitheatre, except 
where a few spikes and rounded masses of granite 
rose through it, and where two frozen lakes, with 
their blue ice-disks, broke the monotonous sur- 
face. Through the white snow-gate of our 
amphitheatre, as through a frame, we looked 
eastward upon the summit group; not a tree, 
not a vestige of vegetation in sight, — sky, snow, 
and granite the only elements in this wild 
picture. 

After searching for a shelter we at last found 
a granite crevice near the margin of one of the 
frozen lakes, — a sort of shelf just large enough 
for Cotter and me, — -where we hastened to make 
our bed, having first filled the canteen from a 
small stream that trickled over the ice, knowing 
that in a few moments the rapid chill would 
freeze it. We ate our supper of cold venison 
and bread, and whittled from the sides of the 
wooden barometer case shaving enough to warm 
water for a cup of miserably tepid tea, and then, 
packing our provisions and instruments away at 
the head of the shelf, rolled ourselves in our 
blankets and lay down to enjoy the view. 

After such fatiguing exercises the mind has 
an almost abnormal clearness: whether this is 
wholly from within, or due to the intensely vital- 
izing mountain air, I am not sure ; probably both 
contribute to the state of exaltation in which all 
alpine climbers find themselves. The solid 
granite gave me a luxurious repose, and I lay 
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The Ascent of Mount Tyndall 

on the edge of our little rock niche and watched 
the strange yet brilliant scene. 

All the snow of our recess lay in the shadow of 
the high granite wall to the west, but the Kern 
divide which curved around us from the south- 
east was in full light; its broken sky-line, battle- 
mented and adorned with innumerable rough- 
hewn spires and pinnacles, was a mass of glowing 
orange intensely defined against the deep violet 
sky. At the open end of our horseshoe amphi- 
theatre, to the east, its floor of snow rounded over 
in a smooth brink, overhanging precipices which 
sank 2,000 feet into the King's Canon. Across 
the gulf rose the whole procession of summit 
peaks, their lower half rooted in a deep sombre 
shadow cast by the western wall, the heights 
bathed in a warm purple haze, in which the 
irregular marbling of snow burned with a pure 
crimson light. A few fleecy clouds, dyed fiery 
orange, drifted slowly eastward across the narrow 
zone of sky which stretched from summit to 
summit like a roof. At times the sound of water- 
falls, faint and mingled with echoes, floated up 
through the still air. The snow near by lay in 
cold ghastly shade, wanned here and there in 
strange flashes by light reflected downward from 
drifting clouds. The sombre waste about us; 
the deep violet vault overhead; those far sum- 
mits, glowing with reflected rose; the deep im- 
penetrable gloom which filled the gorge, and 
slowly and with vapour-like stealth climbed the 
mountain wall, extinguishing the red light, com- 
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Masterpieces of Science 

bined to produce an effect which may not be 
described; nor can I more than hint at the con- 
trast between the brilliancy of the scene under 
full light, and the cold, death-like repose which 
followed when the wan cliffs and pallid snow 
were all overshadowed with ghostly gray. 

A sudden chill enveloped us. Stars in a mo- 
ment crowded through the dark heaven, flashing 
with a frosty splendour. The snow congealed, 
the brooks ceased to flow, and, under the power- 
ful sudden leverage of frost, immense blocks were 
dislodged all along the mountain summits and 
came thundering down the slopes, booming upon 
the ice, dashing wildly upon rocks. Under the 
lee of our shelf we felt quite safe, but neither 
Cotter nor I could help being startled, and jump- 
ing just a little, as these missiles, weighing often 
many tons, struck the ledge over our heads and 
whizzed down the gorge, their stroke resounding 
fainter and fainter, until at last only a confused 
echo reached us. 

The thermometer at nine o'clock marked 
twenty degrees above zero. We set the "mini- 
mum " and rolled ourselves together for the night. 
The longer I lay the less I liked that shelf of 
granite; it grew hard in time, and cold also, my 
bones seeming to approach actual contact with 
the chilled rock; moreover, I found that even so 
vigorous a circulation as mine was not enough to 
warm up the ledge to anything like a comfortable 
temperature. A* single thickness of blanket is a 
better mattress than none, but the larger crystals 
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The Ascent of Mount Tyndall 

of orthoclase, protruding plentifully, punched 
my back and caused me to revolve on a horizon- 
tal axis with precision and accuracy. How I 
loved Cotter ! how I hugged him and got warm, 
while our backs gradually petrified, till we whirled 
over and thawed them out together ! The slant 
of that bed was diagonal and excessive; down it 
we slid till the ice chilled us awake, and we 
crawled back and chocked ourselves up with bits 
of granite inserted under my ribs and shoulders. 
In this pleasant position we got dozing again, 
and there stole over me a most comfortable ease. 
The granite softened perceptibly. I was de- 
lightfully warm and sank into an industrious 
slumber which lasted with great soundness until 
four, when we arose and ate our breakfast of 
frozen venison. 

The thermometer stood at two above zero; 
everything was frozen tight except the canteen, 
which we had prudently kept between us all 
night. Stars still blazed brightly, and the moon, 
hidden from us by western cliffs, shone in pale 
reflection upon the rocky heights to the east, 
which rose, dimly white, up from the impene- 
trable shadows of the canon. Silence, — cold, 
ghastly dimness, in which loomed huge forms, — 
the biting frostiness of the air, wrought upon our 
feelings as we shouldered our packs and started 
with slow pace to climb up the "divide. " 

Soon, to our dismay, we found the straps had 
so chafed our shoulders that the weight gave us 
great pain, and obliged us to pad them with our 
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Masterpieces of Science 

handkerchiefs and extra socks, which remedy did 
not wholly relieve us from the constant wearing 
pain of the heavy load. 

Directing our steps southward toward a niche 
in the wall which bounded us only half a mile 
distant, we travelled over a continuous snow- 
field frozen so densely as scarcely to yield at all 
to our tread, at the same time compressing 
enough to make that crisp frosty sound which 
we all used to enjoy even before we knew from 
the books that it had something to do with the 
severe name of regelation. 

As we advanced, the snow sloped more and 
more steeply up toward the crags, till by and by 
it became quite dangerous, causing us to cut 
steps with Cotter's large bowie-knife, — a slow, 
tedious operation, requiring patience of a pretty 
permanent kind. In this way we spent a quiet 
social hour or so. The sun had not yet reached 
us, being shut out by the high amphitheatre wall; 
but its- cheerful light reflected downward from 
a number of higher crags, filling the recess with 
the brightness of day, and putting out of exist- 
ence those shadows which so sombrely darkened 
the earlier hours. To look back when we stopped 
to rest was to realize our danger, — that smooth, 
swift slope of ice carrying the eye down a thou- 
sand feet to the margin of a frozen mirror of ice ; 
ribs and needles of rocks piercing up through the 
snow, so closely grouped that, had we fallen, a 
miracle only might have saved us from being 
dashed. This led to rather deeper steps, and great- 
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The Ascent of Mount Tyndall 

er care that our burdens should be held more 
nearly over the centre of gravity, and a pleasant 
relief when we got to the top of the snow and sat 
down on a block of granite to breathe and look up 
in search of a way up the thousand-foot cliff of 
broken surface, among the lines of fracture and 
the galleries winding along the face. 

It would have disheartened us to gaze up the 
hard sheer front of precipices, and search among 
splintered projections, crevices, shelves, and snow 
patches for an inviting route, had we not been 
animated by a faith that the mountains could 
not defy us. 

Choosing what looked like the least impossible 
way, we started; but, finding it unsafe to work 
with packs on, resumed the yesterday's plan, — 
Cotter taking the lead, climbing about fifty feet 
ahead, and hoisting up the knapsacks and ba- 
rometer as I tied* them to the end of the lasso. 
Constantly closing up in hopeless difficulty before 
us, the way opened again and again to our gym- 
nastics, till we stood together on a mere shelf, 
not more than two feet wide, which led diagonally 
up the smooth cliff. Edging along in careful 
steps, our backs flattened upon the granite, we 
moved slowly to a broad platform, where we 
stopped for breath. 

There was no foothold above us. Looking 
down over the course we had come, it seemed, 
and I really believe it was, an impossible descent, 
for one can climb upward with safety where he 
cannot downward. To turn back was to give 
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Masterpieces of ' Science 

up in defeat; and', we sat at least half an hour, 
suggesting all possible routes to the summit, 
accepting none, and feeling disheartened. About 
thirty feet directly over our heads was another 
shelf, which, if we could reach, seemed to offer 
at least a temporary way upward. On its edge 
were two or three spikes of granite; whether 
firmly connected with the cliff, or merely blocks 
of debris, we could not tell from below. I said 
to Cotter, I thought of but one possible plan: 
it was to lasso one of these blocks, and to climb, 
sailor-fashion, hand over hand, up the rope. 
In the lasso I had perfect confidence, for I had 
seen more than one Spanish bull throw his whole 
weight against it without parting a strand. The 
shelf was so narrow that throwing the coil of rope 
was a very difficult undertaking. I tried three 
times, and Cotter spent five minutes vainly whirl- 
ing the loop up at the granite spikes. At last I 
made a lucky throw, and it tightened upon one 
of the smaller protuberances. I drew the noose 
close, and very gradually threw my hundred and 
fifty pounds upon the rope; then Cotter joined 
me, and, for a moment, we both hung our united 
weight upon it. Whether the rock moved 
slightly or whether the lasso stretched a little 
we were unable to decide; but the trial must be 
made, and I began to climb slowly. The smooth 
precipice-face against which my body swung 
offered no foothold, and the whole climb had 
therefore to be done by the arms, an effort re- 
quiring all one's determination. When about 
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The Ascent of M unt Tyndall 

half way up I was obliged to rest, and, curling 
my feet in the rope, managed to relieve my arms 
for a moment. In this position I could not 
resist the fascinating temptation of a survey 
downward. 

Straight down, nearly a thousand feet below, 
at the foot of the rocks, began the snow, whose 
steep, roof -like slope, exaggerated into an almost 
vertical angle, curved down in a long white field, 
broken far away by rocks and polished, round 
lakes of ice. 

Cotter looked up cheerfully and asked how 
I was making it ; to which I answered that I had 
plenty of wind left. At that moment, when 
hanging between heaven and earth, it was a 
deep satisfaction to look down at the wide gulf of 
desolation beneath, and up to unknown dangers 
ahead, and feel my nerves cool and unshaken. 

A few pulls hand over hand brought me to 
the edge of the shelf, when, throwing my arm 
around the granite spike, I swung my body upon 
the shelf and lay down to rest, shouting to Cotter 
that I was all right, and that the prospects up- 
ward were capital. After a few moments' 
breathing I looked over the brink and directed 
my comrade to tie the barometer to the lower 
end of the lasso, which he did, and that precious 
instrument was hoisted to my station, and the 
lasso sent down twice for knapsacks, after which 
Cotter came up the rope in his very muscular 
way without once stopping to rest. We took 
our loads in our hands, swinging the barometer 
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Masterpieces of Science 

over my shoulder, and climbed up a shelf which 
led in a zig-zag direction upward and to the 
south, bringing us out at last upon the thin blade 
of a ridge which connected a short distance above 
the summit. It was formed of huge blocks, 
shattered, and ready, at a touch, to fall. 

So narrow and sharp' was the upper slope, 
that we dared not walk, but got astride, and 
worked slowly along with our hands, pushing 
the knapsacks in advance, now and then holding 
our breath when loose masses rocked under our 
weight. 

Once upon the summit, a grand view burst 
upon us. Hastening to step upon the crest of 
the divide, which was never more than ten feet 
wide, frequently sharpened to a mere blade, we 
looked down upon the other side, and were as- 
tonished to find we had ascended the gentler 
slope, and that the rocks fell from our feet in 
almost vertical precipices for a thousand feet or 
more. A glance along the summit toward the 
highest group showed us that any advance in 
that direction was impossible, for the thin ridge 
was gashed down in notches three or four hundred 
feet deep, forming a procession of pillars, obelisks, 
and blocks piled upon each other, and looking 
terribly insecure. 

We then deposited our knapsacks in a safe 
place, and, finding that it was already noon, 
determined to rest a little while and take a lunch 
at over 13,000 feet above the sea. 

West of us stretched the Mount Brewer wall 
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The Ascent of Mount Tyndall 

with its succession of smooth precipices and am- 
phitheatre ridges. To the north the great gorge 
of the King's River yawned down 5,000 feet. To 
the south, the valley of the Kern, opening in 
the opposite direction, was broader, less deep, 
but more filled with broken masses of granite. 
Clustered about the foot of the divide were a 
dozen alpine lakes ; the higher ones blue sheets of 
ice, the lowest completely melted. Still lower 
in the depths of the two canons we could see 
groups of forest trees; but they were so dim and 
so distant as never to relieve the prevalent 
masses of rock and snow. Our divide cast its 
shadow for a mile down King's Canon in dark- 
blue profile upon the broad sheets of sunny snow, 
from whose brightness the hard splintered cliffs 
caught reflections and wore an aspect of joy. 
Thousands of rills poured from the melting snow, 
filling the air with a musical tinkle as of many 
accordant bells. The Kern Valley opened below 
us with its smooth oval outline, the wcrk of ex- 
tinct glaciers, whose form and extent were evident 
from worn cliff surface and rounded wall; snow- 
fields, relics of the former neve [glacier snow] 
hung in white tapestries around its ancient birth- 
place; and, as far as we could see, the broad, 
corrugated valley, for a breadth of fully ten miles, 
shone with burnishings wherever its granite sur- 
face was not covered with lakelets or thickets of 
alpine vegetation. 

Through a deep cut in the Mount Brewer wall 
we gained our first view to the westward, and 
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Masterpieces of Science 

saw in the distance the wall of the South King's 
Canon, and the granite point which Cotter and I 
had climbed a fortnight before. But for the 
haze we might have seen the plain; for above 
its farther limit were several points of the Coast 
Ranges, isolated like islands in the sea. 

The view was so grand, the mountain colours 
so brilliant, immense snow-fields and blue alpine 
lakes so charming, that we almost forgot we were 
ever to move, and it was only after a swift hour 
of this delight that we began to consider our 
future course. 

The King's Canon, which headed against our 
wall, seemed untraversable, — no human being 
could climb along the divide; Ave had then but 
one hope of reaching the peak, and our greatest 
difficulty lay at the start. If we could climb 
down to the Kern side of the divide, and succeed 
in reaching the base of the precipices which fell 
from our feet, it really looked as if we might 
travel without difficulty among the rocks to the 
other side of the Kern Valley, and make our at- 
tempt upon the southward flank of the great peak. 
One look at the sublime white giant decided us. 
We looked down over the precipice, and at first 
could see no method of descent. Then we went 
back and looked at the road we had come up,, to 
see if that were not possibly as bad; but the 
broken surface of the rocks was evidently much 
better climbing-ground than anything ahead of 
us. Cotter, with danger, edged his way along the 
wall to the east, and I to the west, to see if there 
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The. Ascent of Mount Tyndall 

might not be some favourable point; but we 
both returned with the belief that the precipice 
in front of us was as passable as any of it. Down 
it we must. 

After lying on our faces, looking ouer the brink 
ten or twenty minutes, I suggested that by lower- 
ing ourselves on the rope we might climb from 
crevice to crevice; but we saw no shelf large 
enough for ourselves and the knapsacks too. 
However, we were not going to give it up without 
a trial ; and I made the rope fast around my breast 
and, looping the noose over a firm point of rock, 
let myself slide gradually down to a notch forty 
feet below. There was only room beside me for 
Cotter, so I had him send down the knapsacks 
first. I then tied these together by the straps 
with my silk handkerchiefs, and hung them as far 
to the left as I could reach without losing my 
balance, looping the handkerchiefs over a point 
of rock. Cotter then slid down the rope, and, 
with considerable difficulty, we whipped the 
noose off its resting-place above, and cut off our 
connection with the upper world. 

''We're in for it now, King," remarked my 
comrade, as he looked aloft, and then down; but 
our blood was up, and danger added only an 
exhilarating thrill to the nerves. 

The shelf was hardly more than two feet wide, 
and the granite so smooth that we could find no 
place to fasten the lasso for the next descent; 
so I determined to try the climb with only as 
little aid as possible. Tying it round my breast 
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Masterpieces of Science 

again, I gave the other end into Cotter's hands, 
and he, bracing, his back against the cliff, found 
for himself as firm a foothold as he could, and 
promised to give me all the help in his power. 
I made up my mind to bear no weight unless it 
was absolutely necessary; and for the first ten 
feet I found cracks and protuberances enough 
,to support me, making every square inch of sur- 
face do friction duty, and hugging myself against 
the rocks as tightly as I could. When within 
about eight feet of the next shelf, I twisted my- 
self round upon the face, hanging by two rough 
blocks of protruding feldspar, and looked vainly 
for some further hand-hold ; but the rock, besides 
being perfectly smooth, overhung slightly, and 
my legs dangled in the air. I saw that the next 
cleft was over three feet broad, and I thought, 
possibly, I might, by a quick slide, reach it in 
safety without endangering Cotter. I shouted 
to him to be very careful and let go in case I 
fell, loosened my hold upon the rope, and slid 
quickly down. My shoulder struck against the 
rock and threw me out of balance ; for an instant 
I reeled over upon the verge, in danger of falling, 
but, in the excitement, I thrust out my hand 
and seized a small alpine gooseberry bush, the 
first piece of vegetation we had seen. Its roots 
were so firmly fixed in the crevice that it held 
my weight and saved me. 

I could no longer see Cotter, but I talked to 
him, and heard the two knapsacks come bumping 
along until they slid over the eaves above me, 
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The Ascent .of Mount Tyndall 

and swung down to my station, when I seized the 
lasso's end and braced myself as well as possible, 
intending, if he slipped, to haul in slack and help 
him as best I might. As he came slowly down 
from crack to crack, I heard his hobnailed shoes 
grating on the granite; presently they appeared 
dangling from the eaves above my head. I had 
gathered in the rope until it was taut, and then 
hurriedly told him to drop. He hesitated a 
moment and let go. Before he struck the rock 
I had him by the shoulder, and whirled him 
down upon his side, thus preventing his rolling 
overboard, which friendly action he took quite 
coolly. .., 

The third descent was not a difficult one, nor 
the fourth; but when we had elimbed down about 
two hundred and fifty feet the rocks were so 
glacially polished and water-worn that it seemed 
impossible to get any farther. To our right was 
a crack penetrating the rock perhaps a foot deep, 
widening at the surface to three or four inches, 
which proved to be the only possible ladder. 
As the chances seemed rather desperate, we con- 
cluded to tie ourselves together, in order to share 
a common fate; and with a slack of thirty feet 
between us, and our knapsacks upon our backs, 
we climbed into the crevice, and began descend- 
ing with our faces to the cliff. This had to be 
done with unusual caution, for the foothold was 
about as good as none, and our fingers slipped 
annoyingly on the smooth stone; besides the 
knapsacks and instruments kept a steady back- 
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Masterpieces of Science 

ward pull, tending to overbalance us. But we 
took' pains to descend one at a time, and rest 
wherever the niches gave our feet a safe support. 
In this way we got down about eighty feet of 
smooth, nearly vertical wall, reaching the top of 
a rude granite stairway, which led to the snow; 
and here we sat down to rest, and found to our 
astonishment that we had been three hours from 
the summit. 

After breathing a half-minute we continued 
down, jumping from rock to rock, and, having 
by practice become very expert in balancing our- 
selves, sprang on, never resting long enough to 
lose equilibrium, and in this manner made a 
quick descent over rugged debris to the crest of 
a snow-field, which, for seven or eight hundred 
feet more, swept down in a smooth, even slope, 
of very high angle, to the borders of a frozen 
lake. 

Without untying the lasso which bound us 
together, we sprang upon the snow with a shout, 
and slid down splendidly, turning now and then 
a somersault, and shooting out like cannon-balls 
almost to the middle of the frozen lake; I upon 
my back, and Cotter feet first, in a swimming 
position. The ice cracked in all directions. It 
was only a thin, transparent film, through which 
we could see deep into the lake. Untying our- 
selves, we hurried ashore in different directions, 
lest our combined weight should be too great a 
strain upon any point. 

With curiosity and wonder we scanned every 
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The Ascent of Mount Tyndall 

shelf and niche of the last descent. It seemed 
quite impossible that we could have come down 
there, and now it actually was beyond human 
power to get back again. But what cared we ? 
"Sufficient unto the day" — "We were bound 
for that still distant, though gradually nearing, 
summit; and we had come from a cold shadowed 
cliff into deliriously warm sunshine, and were 
jolly, shouting, singing songs, and calling out the 
companionship of a hundred echoes. Six miles 
away, with no grave danger, no great difficulty, 
between us, lay the base of our grand mountain. 
Upon its skirts we saw a little grove of pines, an 
ideal bivouac, and toward this we bent our course. 
After the continued climbing of the day, walk- 
ing was a delicious rest, and forward we pressed 
with considerable speed, our hobnails giving us 
firm footing on the glittering glacial surface. 
Every fluting of the great valley was in itself a 
considerable canon, into which we descended, 
climbing down the scored rocks, and swinging 
from block to block, until we reached the level 
of the pines. Here, sheltered among loose rocks, 
began to appear little fields of alpine grass, pale 
yet sunny, soft under our feet, fragrantly jewelled 
with flowers of fairy delicacy, holding up amid 
thickly clustered blades chalices of turquoise and 
amethyst, white stars, and fiery little globes of 
red. Lakelets, small but innumerable, were held 
in glacial basins, the scorings and grooves of that 
old' dragon's track ornamenting their smooth 
bottoms. 

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Masterpieces of Science 

One of these, a sheet of pure beryl hue, gave 
us as much pleasure from its lovely transparency, 
and because we la} 7 down in the necklace of grass 
about it and smelled flowers, while tired muscles 
relaxed upon warm beds of verdure, and the pain 
in our burdened shoulders went away, leaving us 
delightfully comfortable. 

After the stern grandeur of granite and ice, 
and with the peaks and walls still in view, it was 
relief to find ourselves again in the region of 
life. I never felt for trees and flowers such a 
sense of intimate relationship and sympathy. 
When we had no longer excuse for resting, I 
invented the palpable subterfuge of measuring 
the altitude of the spot, since the few clumps of 
low, wide-boughed pines near by were the highest 
living trees. So we lay longer with less and 
less will to rise, and when resolution called us to 
our feet the getting up was sorely like Rip Van 
Winkle's in the third act. 

The deep glacial canon-flutings across which 
our march then lay proved to be great consumers 
of time; indeed it was sunset when we reached the 
eastern ascent, and began to toil up through 
scattered pines, and over trains of moraine 
[glacial] rocks, toward the great peak. Stars were 
already flashing brilliantly in the sky, and the 
low glowing arch in the west had almost vanished 
when we reached the upper trees, and threw 
down our knapsacks to camp. The forest grew 
on a sort of plateau-shelf with a precipitous front 
to the west, — a level surface which stretched east- 
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The Ascent of Mount Tyndall 

ward and back to the foot of our mountain, 
whose lower spurs reached within a mile of camp- 
Within the shelter lay a huge fallen log, like all 
these alpine woods one mass of resin, which flared 
up when we applied a match, illuminating the 
whole grove. By contrast with the darkness out- 
side, we seemed to be in a vast, many-pillared 
hall. The stream close by afforded water for 
our blessed teapot; venison frizzled with mild, 
appetizing sound upon the ends of pine sticks; 
matchless beans allowed themselves to become 
seductively crisp upon our tin plates. That sup- 
per seemed to me then the quintessence of gas- 
tronomy, and I am sure Cotter and I must have 
said some very good after-dinner things, though 
I long ago forgot them all. Within the ring of 
warmth, on elastic beds of pine-needles, we 
curled up, and fell swiftly into a sound sleep. 

I woke up once in the night to look at my 
watch, and observed that the sky was overcast 
with a thin film of cirrus cloud to which the re- 
flected moonlight lent the appearance of a glim- 
mering tint, stretched from mountain to moun- 
tain over cafions filled with impenetrable dark- 
ness, only the vaguely-lighted peaks and white 
snow-fields distinctly seen. I closed my eyes and 
slept soundly until Cotter awoke me at half-past 
three, when we arose, breakfasted by the light of 
our fire, which still blazed brilliantly, and, leav- 
ing our knapsacks, started for the mountain with 
only instruments, canteens, and luncheon. 

In the indistinct moonlight climbing was very 
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Masterpieces of Science 

difficult at first, for we had to thread our way 
along a plain whch was literally covered with 
glacier boulders, and the innumerable brooks 
which we crossed were frozen solid. However, 
our march brought us to the base of the great 
mountain, which, rising high against the east, 
shut out the. coming daylight, and kept us in pro- 
found shadow. From base to summit rose a 
series of broken crags, lifting themselves from a 
general slope of debris. Toward the left the 
angle seemed to be rather gentler, and the surface 
less ragged; and we hoped, by a long detour round 
the base, to make an easy climb up this gentler 
surface. So we toiled on for an hour over the 
rocks, reaching at last the bottom of the north 
slope. Here our work began in good earnest. 
The blocks were of enormous size, and in every 
stage of unstable equilibrium, frequently rolling 
over as we jumped upon them, making it neces- 
sary for us to take a second leap and land where 
we best could. To our relief we soon surmounted 
the largest blocks, reaching a smaller size, which 
served us as a sort of stairway. 

The advancing daylight revealed to us a very 
long, comparatively even snow-slope, whose sur- 
face was pierced by many knobs and granite 
heads, giving it the aspect of a nice-roofing fast- 
ened on with bolts of stone. It stretched in far 
perspective to the summit, where already the 
rose of sunrise reflected gloriously, kindling a 
fresh enthusiasm within us. 

Immense boulders were partly imbedded in the 
126 



The Ascent of Mount Tyndall 

ice just above us, whose constant melting left 
them trembling on the edge of a fall. It com- 
municated no very pleasant sensation to see above 
you these immense missiles hanging by a mere 
band, and knowing that, as soon as the sun rose, 
you would be exposed to a constant connonade. 

The east side of the peak, which we could now 
partially see, was too precipitous to think of 
climbing. The slope toward our camp was too 
much broken into pinnacles and crags to offer 
us any hope, or to divert us from the single way, 
dead ahead, up slopes of ice and among fragments 
of granite. The sun rose upon us while we were 
climbing the lower part of this snow, and in less 
than half an hour, melting began to liberate huge 
blocks, which thundered down past us, gathering 
and growing into small avalanches below. 

We did not dare climb one above another, 
according to our ordinary mode, but kept about 
an equal level, a hundred feet apart, lest, dis- 
lodging the blocks, one should hurl them down 
upon the other. 

We climbed alternately up smooth faces of 
granite, clinging simply by the cracks and pro- 
truding crystals of feldspar, and then hewed steps 
up fearfully steep slopes of ice, zigzagging to the 
right and left to avoid the flying boulders. When 
midway up this slope we reached a place where 
the granite rose in perfectly smooth bluffs on 
either side of a gorge, — a narrow cut, or walled 
way, leading up to the flat summit of the cliff. 
This we scaled by cutting ice steps, only to find 
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Masterpieces of Science 

ourselves fronted again by a still higher wall. Ice 
sloped from its front at too steep an angle for us 
to follow, but had melted in contact with it, leav- 
ing a space three feet wide between the ice and 
the rock. We entered this crevice and climbed 
along its bottom, with a wall of rock rising a 
hundred feet above us on one side, and a thirty- 
foot face of ice on the other, through which light 
of an intense cobalt-blue penetrated. 

Reaching the upper end, we had to cut our 
footsteps upon the ice again, and, having braced 
our backs against the granite, climb up to the sur- 
face. We were now in a dangerous position: to 
fall into the crevice upon one side was to be 
wedged to death between rock and ice; to make 
a slip was to be shot down five hundred feet, and 
then hurled over the brink of a precipice. In the 
friendly seat which this wedge gave me, I stopped 
to take wet and dry observations with the ther- 
mometer, — this being an absolute preventive of a 
scare, — and to enjoy the view. 

The wall of our mountain sank abruptly to the 
left, opening for the first time an outlook to the 
eastward. Deep — it seemed almost vertically — 
beneath us we could see the blue waters of Owen's 
Lake, 10,000 feet below. The summit peaks to 
the north were piled up in titanic confusion, 
their ridges overhanging the eastern slope with 
terrible abruptness. Clustered upon the shelves 
and plateaus below were several frozen lakes, and 
in all directions swept magnificent fields of snow. 
The summit was now not over five hundred feet 
128 



The Ascent of Mount Tyndall 

distant, and we started on again with the exhil- 
arating hope of success. But if Nature had in- 
tended to secure the summit from all assailants, 
she could not have planned her defences better; 
for the smooth granite wall which- rose above the 
snow-slope continued, apparently, quite round 
the peak, and we looked in great anxiety to see 
if there was not one place where it might be 
climbed. It was all blank except in one place; 
quite near us the snow bridged across the crevice, 
and rose in a long point to the summit of the wall, 
— a great icicle-column frozen in a niche of the 
bluff, — its base about ten feet wide, narrowing to 
two feet at the top. We climbed to the base of 
this spire of ice, and, with the utmost care, began 
to cut our stairway. The material was an ex- 
ceedingly compacted snow, passing into clear ice 
as it neared the rock. We climbed the first half 
of it with comparative ease; after that it was 
almost vertical, and so thin that we did not dare 
to cut the footsteps deep enough to make them 
absolutely safe. There was a constant dread 
lest our ladder should break off, and we be 
thrown either down the snow-slope or into the 
bottom of the crevasse. At last, in order to pre- 
vent myself from falling over backwards, I was 
obliged to thrust my hand into the crack between 
the ice and the wall, and the spire became so 
narrow that I could do this on both sides ; so that 
the climb was made as upon a tree, cutting mere 
toe-holes and embracing the whole column of ice 
in my arms. At last I reached the top, and, with 
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Masterpieces of Science 

the greatest caution, wormed my body over the 
brink, and rolling out upon the smooth surface of 
the granite, looked over and watched Cotter 
make his climb. He came up steadily, with no 
sense of nervousness, until he got to the narrow 
part of the ice, and here he stopped and looked up 
with a forlorn face to me; but as he climbed up 
over the ledge the broad smile came back to his 
face, and he asked me if it had occurred to me 
that we had, by and by, to go down again. 

We had now an easy slope to the summit, and 
hurried up over rocks and ice, reaching the crest 
at exactly twelve o'clock. I rang my hammer 
upon the topmost rock; we grasped hands, and I 
reverently named the grand peak Mount Tyn- 

DALL. 



130 



THE GRAND CANON OF THE 
COLORADO 

Major John Wesley Powell 

[In 1869-72 Major John Wesley Powell was the chief of 
a party which explored the Colorado River of the West and 
its tributaries. The chapter subjoined is from his official 
report, published by the Government Printing Office, Wash- 
ington, 1875. The substance of that report, with much 
additional matter of great interest, appears in "The Canons 
of the Colorado," by Major Powell, published by Flood & 
Vincent, Meadville, Pa., 1895, with superb illustrations. 
For fourteen years, beginning with 1880, Major Powell was 
director of the United States Geological Survey; since 1879 
he has been director of the United States Bureau of 
Ethnology .Q 

August 1 J, 1869. We are now ready to start 
on our way down the Great Unknown. Our 
boats, tied to a common stake, are chafing each 
other, as they are tossed by the fretful river. 
They ride high and buoyant, for their loads 
are lighter than we could desire. We have 
but a month's rations remaining. The flour 
has been resifted through the mosquito net 
sieve; the spoiled bacon has been dried, and 
the worst of it boiled; the few pounds of dried 
apples have been spread in the sun, and re- 
shrunken to their normal bulk; the sugar has 
all melted, and gone on its way down the river; 
but we have a large sack of coffee. The lightening 
of the boats has this advantage: they will ride 
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Masterpieces of Science 

the waves better, and we shall have but little 
to carry when we make a portage. 

We are three-quarters of a mile in the depths 
of the earth, and the great river shrinks into 
insignificance, as it dashes its angry waves 
against the walls and cliffs, that rise to the 
world above; they are but puny ripples, and 
we but pigmies, running up and down the sands, 
or lost among the boulders. 

We have an unknown distance yet to run; 
an unknown river yet to explore. What falls 
there are, we know not; what rocks beset the 
channel, we know not; what walls rise over 
the river, we know not. Ah, well ! we may 
conjecture many things. The men talk as cheer- 
fully as ever; jests are bandied out freely this 
morning; but to me the cheer is sombre and 
the jests are ghastly. 

With some eagerness, and some anxiety, 
and some misgiving, we enter the canon below, 
and are carried along by the swift water through 
walls which rise from its A T ery edge. They have 
the same structure as we noticed yesterday — 
— tiers of irregular shelves below, and, above 
these, steep slopes to the foot of marble cliffs. 
We run six miles in a little more than half an 
hour, and emerge into a more open portion 
of the canon, where high hills and ledges of 
rock intervene between the river and the dis- 
tant walls. Just at the head of this open place 
the river runs across a dike; that is, a fissure 
in the rocks, open to depths below, has been 
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The Grand Canon of the Colorado 

filled with eruptive matter, and this, on cooling, 
was harder than the rocks through which the 
crevice was made, and, when these were washed 
away, the harder volcanic matter remained as 
a wall, and the river has cut a gateway through 
it several hundred feet high, and as many wide. 
As it crosses the wall, there is a fall below, 
and a bad rapid, filled with boulders of trap; 
so we stop to make a portage. Then on we go, 
gliding by hills and ledges, with distant walls 
in view; sweeping past sharp angles of rock; 
stopping at a few points to examine rapids, 
which we find can be run, until we have 
made another five miles, when we land for 
dinner. 

Then we let down with lines, over a long 
rapid, and start again. Once more the walls 
close in, and we find ourselves in a narrow gorge, 
the water again filling the channel, and very 
swift. With great care and constant watchful- 
ness we proceed, making about four miles this 
afternoon, and camp in a cave. 

August 14. At daybreak we walk down the 
bank of the river, on a little sandy beach, to take 
a view of a new feature in the canon. Heretofore 
hard rocks have given us bad river; soft rocks, 
smooth water; and a series of rocks harder than 
any we have experienced sets in. The river 
enters the granite ! * 

* Geologists would call these'rocks metamorphic crystalline 
schists, with dikes and beds of granite, but we will use the 
popular name for the whole series — granite. 

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Masterpieces of Science 

We can see but a little way into the granite 
gorge, but it looks threatening. 

After breakfast we enter on the waves. At 
the very introduction, it inspires awe. The 
canon is narrower than we have ever before seen 
it ; the water is swifter ; there are but few broken 
rocks in the channel; but the walls are set, on 
either side, with pinnacles and crags; and sharp, 
angular buttresses, bristling with wind and wave- 
polished spires, extend far out into the river. 

Ledges of rock jut into the stream, their tops 
just below the surface, sometimes rising few or 
many feet above; and island ledges, and island 
pinnacles, and island towers break the swift 
course of the stream into chutes, and eddies, and 
whirlpools. We soon reach a place where a creek 
comes in from the left, and just below the channel 
is choked with boulders, which have washed down 
this lateral canon and formed a dam, over which 
there is a fall of thirty or forty feet; but on the 
boulders we can get foothold, and we make a 
portage. 

Three more such dams are found. Over one 
we make a portage; at the other two we find 
chutes, through which we can run. 

As we proceed, the granite rises higher, until 
nearly a thousand feet of the lower part of the 
walls are composed of this rock. 

About eleven o'clock we hear a great roar 

ahead, and approach it very cautiously. The 

sound grows louder and louder as we run, and at 

last we find ourselves above a long, broken fall, 

134 



The Grand Canon of the Colorado 

with ledges and pinnacles of rock obstructing the 
river. There is a descent of, perhaps, seventy- 
five or eighty feet in a third of a mile, and the 
rushing waters break into great waves on the 
rocks, and lash themselves into a mad, white 
foam. We can land just above, but there is no 
foothold on either side by which we can make a 
portage. It is nearly a thousand feet to the top 
of the granite, so it will be impossible to carry our 
boats around, though we can climb to the sum- 
mit up a side gulch, and, passing along a mile or 
two, can descend to the river. This we find on 
examination; but such a portage would be im- 
practicable for us, and we must run the rapid, or 
abandon the river. There is no hesitation. We 
step into our boats, push off, and away we go, 
first on smooth but swift water, then we strike a 
glassy wave, and ride to its top, down again into 
the trough, up again on a higher wave, and down 
and up on waves higher and still higher, until we 
strike one just as it curls back, and a breaker 
rolls over our little boat. Still, on we speed, 
shooting past projecting rocks, till the little boat 
is caught in a whirlpool, and spun around several 
times. At last we pull out again into the stream, 
and now the other boats have passed us. The 
open compartment of the Emma Dean is filled 
with water, and every breaker rolls over us. 
Hurled back from a rock, now on this side, now 
on that, we are carried into an eddy, in which we 
struggle for a few minutes, and are then out again, 
the breakers still rolling over us. Our boat is 
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Masterpieces of Science 

unmanageable, but she cannot sink, and we drift 
down another hundred yards, through breakers; 
how, we scarcely know. We find the other boats 
have turned into an eddy at the foot of the fall, 
and are waiting to catch us as we come, for the 
men have seen that our boat is swamped. They 
push out as we come near, and pull us in against 
the wall. We bail our boat, and on we go again. 

The walls, now, are more than a mile in height 
— a vertical distance difficult to appreciate. 
Stand on the south steps of the Treasury Build- 
ing, in Washington, and look down Pennsylvania 
Avenue to the Capitol Park, and measure this 
distance overhead, and imagine cliffs to extend to 
that altitude, and you will understand what I 
mean; or, stand at Canal Street, in New York, and 
look up Broadway to Grace Church, and you 
have about the distance; or, stand at Lake Street 
Bridge in Chicago, and look down to the Central 
Depot, and you have it again. 

A thousand feet of this is up through granite 
crags, then steep slopes and perpendicular cliffs 
rise, one above another, to the summit. The 
gorge is black and narrow below, red and gray 
and flaring above, with crags and angular pro- 
jections on the walls, which, cut in many places 
by side canons, seem to be a vast wilderness of 
rocks. Down in these grand, gloomy depths we 
glide, ever listening, for the mad waters keep up 
their roar; ever watching, ever peering ahead, for 
the narrow canon is winding, and the river is 
closed in so that we can see but a few hundred 
136 



The Grand Canon of the Colorado 

yards, and what there may be below we know 
not; but we listen for falls, and watch for rocks, 
or stop now and then, in the bay of a recess, to 
admire the gigantic scenery. And ever, as we go, 
there is some new pinnacle or tower, some crag or 
peak, some distant view of the upper plateau, 
some strange-shaped rock, or some deep, narrow 
side canon. Then we come to another broken 
fall, which appears more difficult than the one we 
ran this morning. 

A small creek comes in on the right, and the 
first fall of the water is over boulders, which have 
been carried down by this lateral stream. We 
land at its mouth, and stop for an hour or two to 
examine the fall. It seems possible to let" down 
with lines, at least a part of the way, from point 
to point, along the right-hand wall. So we make 
a portage over the first rocks, and find footing on 
some boulders below. Then we let down one of 
the boats to the end of her line, when she reaches 
a corner of the projecting rock, to which one of 
the men clings, and steadies her, while I examine 
an eddy below. I think we can pass the other 
boats down by us, and catch them in the eddy. 
This is soon done and the men in the boats in the 
eddy pull us to their side. On the shore of this 
little eddy there is about two feet of gravel beach 
above the water. Standing on this beach, some 
of the men take the line of the little boat and let 
it drift down against another projecting angle. 
Here is a little shelf, on which a man from my boat 
climbs, and a shorter line is. passed to him, and 
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Masterpieces of Science 

he fastens the boat to the side of the cliff. Then 
the second one is let down, bringing the line of 
the third. When the second boat is tied up, the 
two men standing on the beach above spring into 
the last boat, which is pulled up alongside of ours. 
Then we let down the boats, for twenty-five or 
thirty yards, by walking along the shelf, landing 
them again in the mouth of a side canon. Just 
below this there is another pile of boulders, over 
which we make another portage. From the foot of 
these rocks we can climb to another shelf, forty 
or fifty feet above the water. 

On this beach we camp for the night. We find 
a few sticks, which have lodged in the rocks. It 
is raining hard, and we have no shelter, but 
kindle a fire and have our supper. We sit on the 
rocks all night, wrapped in our ponchos, getting 
what sleep we can. 

August 75. This morning we find we can let 
down for three or four hundred yards, and it is 
managed in this way : We pass along the wall by 
climbing from projecting point to point, some- 
times near the water's edge, at other places fifty 
or sixty feet above, and hold the boat with a line, 
while two men remain aboard, and prevent her 
from being dashed against the rocks, and keep 
the line from getting caught in the wall. In two 
hours we have brought them all down, as far as it 
is possible, in this way. A few yards below, the 
river strikes with great violence against a project- 
ing rock, and our boats are pulled up in a little 
bay above. We must now manage to pull out of 
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The Grand Canon of the Colorado 

this, and clear the point below. The little boat 
is held by the bow obliquely up the stream. We 
jump in, and pull out only a few strokes, and 
sweep clear of the dangerous rock. The other 
boats follow in the same manner, and the rapid 
is passed. 

It is not easy to describe the labour of such 
navigation. We must prevent the waves from 
dashing the boats against the cliffs. Sometimes, 
where the river is swift, we must put a bight of 
rope about a rock, to prevent her being snatched 
from us by a wave; but where the plunge is too 
great, or the chute too swift, we must let her leap, 
and catch her below, or the undertow will drag 
her under the falling water, and she sinks. Where 
we wish to run her out a little way from shore, 
through a channel between rocks, we first throw 
in little sticks of driftwood, and watch their 
course, to see where we must steer, so that she 
will pass the channel in safety. And so we hold, 
and let go, and pull, and lift, and ward, among 
rocks, around rocks, and over rocks. 

And now we go on through this solemn, mys- 
terious way. The river is very deep, the canon 
very narrow, and still obstructed, so that there 
is no steady flow of the stream; but the waters 
wheel, and roll, and boil, and we are scarcely able 
to determine where we can go. Now, the boat is 
carried to the right, perhaps close to the wall; 
again, she is shot into the stream, and perhaps 
is dragged over to the other side, where, caught 
in a whirlpool, she spins about. We can neither 
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Masterpieces of Science 

land nor run as we please. The boats are en- 
tirely unmanageable; no order in their running 
can be preserved; now one, now another, is ahead, 
each crew labouring for its own preservation. 
In such a place we come to another rapid. Two 
of the boats run it perforce. One succeeds in 
landing, but there is no foothold by which to 
make a portage, and she is pushed out again into 
the stream. The next minute a great reflex wave 
fills the open compartment; she is water-logged, 
and drifts unmanageable. Breaker after breaker 
roll over her, and one capsizes her. The men are 
thrown out; but they cling to the boat, and she 
drifts down some distance, alongside of us, and 
we are able to catch her. She is soon bailed out, 
and the men are aboard once more; but the oars 
are lost, so a pair from the Emma Dean is spared. 
Then for two miles we find smooth water. 

Clouds are playing in the canon to-day. Some- 
times they roll down in great masses, filling the 
gorge with gloom; sometimes they hang above, 
from wall to wall, and cover the canon with a 
roof of impending storm; and we can peer long 
distances up and down this canon corridor, with 
its cloud roof overhead, its walls of black granite,' 
and its river bright with the sheen of broken 
waters. Then, a gust of wind sweeps down a side 
gulch, and, making a rift in the clouds, reveals the 
blue heavens, and a stream of sunlight pours in. 
Then, the clouds drift away into the distance, and 
hang around crags, and peaks, and pinnacles, and 
towers, and walls, and cover them with a mantle 
140 



The Grand Canon of the Colorado 

that lifts from time to time, and sets them all in 
sharp relief. Then, baby clouds creep out of side 
canons, glide around points, and creep back again 
into more distant gorges. Then, clouds, set iL 
strata across the canon, with intervening vista 
views, to cliffs and rocks beyond. The clouds 
are children of the heavens, and when they play 
among the rocks they lift them to the region 
above. 

It rains ! Rapidly little rills are formed above, 
and these soon grow into brooks, and the brooks 
grow into creeks, and tumble over the walls in 
innumerable cascades, adding their wild music to 
the roar of the river. When the rain ceases, the 
rills, brooks, and creeks run dry. The waters 
that fall during a rain on these steep rocks are 
gathered at once into the river; they could 
scarcely be poured in more suddenly if some vast 
spout ran from the clouds to the stream itself. 
When a storm bursts over the canon a side gulch 
is dangerous, for a sudden flood may come, and 
the inpouring water will raise the river, so as to 
hide the rocks before your eyes. 

Early in the afternoon we discover a stream, 
entering from the north, a clear, beautiful creek, 
coming down through a gorgeous red canon. We 
land, and camp on a sand beach, above its mouth, 
under a great, overspreading tree, with willow- 
shaped leaves. 

August 16. We must dry our rations again to- 
day, and make oars. 

The Colorado is never a clear stream, but for 
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Masterpieces of Science 

the past three or four days it has been raining 
much of the time, and the floods, which are 
poured over the walls, have brought down great 
quantities of mud, making it exceedingly turbid 
now. The little affluent, which we have dis- 
covered here, is a clear, beautiful creek, or river, 
as it would be termed in this Western country, 
where streams are not abundant. We have 
named one stream, away above, in honour of the 
great chief of the "Bad Angels," and, as this is 
in beautiful contrast to that, we conclude to name 
it "Bright Angel." 

Early in the morning, the whole party starts 
-up to explore the Bright Angel River, with the 
special purpose of seeking timber, from which to 
make oars. A couple of miles above, we find a 
large pine log, which has been floated down from 
the plateau, probably from an altitude of more 
than 6,000 feet, but not many miles back. On its 
way, it must have passed over many cataracts 
and falls, for it bears scars in evidence of the 
rough usage it has received. The men roll it on 
skids, and the work of sawing oars is commenced. 

This stream heads away back, under a line of 
abrupt cliffs, that terminates the plateau, and 
tumbles down more than 4,000 feet in the first 
mile or two of its course; then runs through a 
deep, narrow canon, until it reaches the river. 

Late in the afternoon I return, and go up a 

little gulch, just above this creek, and about two 

hundred yards from camp, and discover the ruins 

of two or three old houses, which were originally 

142 




Fig. 30. — Mu-av Canon, a side gorge 
143 




Masterpieces of Science 

of stone, laid in mortar. Only the foundations 
are left, but irregular blocks, of which the houses 
were constructed, lie scattered about. In one 
room I find an old mealing stone, deeply worn, as 
if it had been much used. A great deal of pottery 
is strewn around, and old trails, which in some 
places are deeply worn into the rocks, are seen. 
It is ever a source of wonder to us why these 
ancient people sought such inaccessible places for 
their homes. They were, doubtless, an agricul- 
tural race, but there are no lands here of any con- 
siderable extent that they could have cultivated. 
To the west of Oraiby, one of the towns in the 
" Province of Tusayan, " in Northern Arizona, the 
inhabitants have actually built little terraces 
along the face of the cliff, where a spring gushes 
out, and thus made their sites for gardens. It 
is possible that the ancient inhabitants of this 
place made their agricultural lands in the same 
way. But why should they seek such spots ? 
Surely, the country was not so crowded with pop- 
ulation as to demand the utilization of so barren 
a region. The only solution of the problem sug- 
gested is this: We know that, for a century or 
two after the settlement of Mexico, many expedi- 
tions were sent into the country, now comprised 
in Arizona and New Mexico, for the purpose of 
bringing the town-building people under the 
dominion of the Spanish Government. Many 
of their villages were destroyed, and the inhabi- 
tants fled to regions at that time unknown; and 
there are traditions among the people who in- 
144 



The Grand Canon of the Colorado 

habit the pueblos that still remain that the cafions 
were these unknown lands. Maybe these build- 
ings were erected at that time ; sure it is that they 
have a much more modern appearance than the 
ruins scattered over Nevada, Utah, Colorado, 
Arizona, and New Mexico. Those old Spanish 
conquerors had a monstrous greed for gold, and 
a wonderful lust for saving souls. Treasures 
they must have if not on earth, why, then, in 
heaven; and when they failed to find heathen 
temples bedecked with silver, they propitiated 
Heaven by seizing the heathen themselves. 
There is yet extant a copy of a record, made by 
a heathen artist, to express his conception of the 
demands of the conquerors. In one part of the 
picture we have a lake, and near by stands a 
priest pouring water on the head of a native. On 
the other side, a poor Indian has a cord about his 
throat. Lines run from these two groups to a 
central figure, a man with beard and full Spanish 
panoply. The interpretation of the picture- 
writing is this: "Be baptized, as this saved 
heathen; or be hanged, as that damned heathen. " 
Doubtless, some of these people preferred a third 
alternative, and, rather than be baptized or 
hanged, they chose to be imprisoned within these 
canon walls. 

August i/. Our rations are still spoiling; the 
bacon is so badly injured that we are compelled 
to throw it away. By accident, this morning, 
the saleratus is lost overboard. We have now 
only musty flour sufficient for ten days, a few 
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Masterpieces of Science 

dried apples, but plenty of coffee. We must 
make all haste possible. If we meet with dif- 
ficulties, as we have done in the canon above, 
we may be compelled to give up the expedition, 
and try to reach the Mormon settlements to the 
north. Our hopes are that the worst places are 
passed, but our barometers are all so much injured 
as to be useless, so we have lost our reckoning in 
altitude, and know not how much descent the 
river has yet to make. 

The stream is still wild and rapid, and rolls 
through a narrow channel. We make but slow 
progress, often landing against a wall, and climb- 
ing around some point, where we can see the 
river below. Although very anxious to advance, 
we are determined to run with great caution, lest, 
by another accident, we lose all our supplies. 
How precious that little flour has become ! We 
divide it among the boats, and carefully store it 
away, so that it can be lost only by the loss of 
the boat itself. 

We make ten miles and a half, and camp among 
the rocks on the right. We have had rain, from 
time to time, all day, and have been thoroughly 
drenched and chilled; but between showers the 
sun shines with great, power, and the mercury in 
our thermometers stands at 1 15 , so that we have 
rapid changes from great extremes, which are 
very disagreeable. It is especially cold in the 
rain to-night. The li ttle canvas we have is rotten 
and useless; the rubber ponchos, with which we 
started from Green River City, have all been lost ; 
146 



The Grand Canon of the Colorado 

more than half the party is without hats, and not 
one of us has an entire suit of clothes, and we have 
not a blanket apiece. So we gather driftwood, 
and build a fire; but after supper the rain, coming 
down in torrents, extinguishes it, and we sit up 
all night on the rocks, shivering, and are more ex- 
hausted by the night's discomfort than by the 
day's toil. 

August 18. The day is employed in making 
portages, and we advance but two miles on our 
journey. Still it rains. 

While the men are at work making portages, I 
climb up the granite to its summit, and go away' 
back over the rust-coloured sandstones and 
greenish-yellow shales to the foot of the marble 
wall. I climb so high that the men and boats 
are lost in the black depths below, and the dash- 
ing river is a rippling brook; and still there is 
more canon above than below. All about me are 
interesting geological records. The book is open,, 
and I can read as I run. All about me are grand 
views, for the clouds are playing again in the 
gorges. But somehow I think of the nine days' 
rations, and the bad river, and the lesson of the 
rocks, and the glory of the scene is but half seen. 

I push on to an angle, where I hope to get a 
view of the country beyond, to see, if possible, 
what the prospect may be of our soon running 
through this plateau, or, at least, of meeting 
with some geological change that will let us out 
of the granite; but, arriving at the point, I can 
see below only a labyrinth of deep gorges. 
147 



Masterpieces of Science 

August iq. Rain again this morning. Still 
We are in our granite prison, and the time is oc- 
cupied until noon in making a long, bad portage. 

After dinner, in running a rapid, the pioneer 
boat is upset by a wave. We are some distance 
in advance of the larger boats, the river is rough 
and swift, and we are unable to land, but cling to 
the boat, and are carried down stream over an- 
other rapid. The men in the boats above see our 
trouble, but they are caught in whirlpools, and 
are spinning about in eddies, and it seems a long 
time before they come to our relief. At last they 
do come; our boat is turned right side up, bailed 
out; the oars, which fortunately have floated 
along in company with us, are gathered up, and 
on we go, without even landing. 

Soon after the accident the clouds break away, 
and we have sunshine again. 

Soon we find a little beach, with just room 
enough to land. Here we camp, but there is no 
wood. Across the river, and a little way above, 
we see some driftwood lodged in the rocks. So 
we bring two boatloads over, build a huge fire, 
and spread everything to dry. It is the first 
cheerful night we have had for a week; a warm, 
drying fire in the midst of the camp and a few 
bright stars in our patch of heavens overhead. 

August 20. The characteristics of the canon 
change this morning'. The river is broader, the 
walls more sloping, and composed of black slates, 
that stand on edge. These nearly vertical slates 
are washed out in places — that is, the softer 
148 



The Grand Canon of the Colorado 

beds are washed out between the harder, which 
are left standing. In this way curious little 
alcoves are formed, in which are quiet bays of 
water, but on a much smaller scale than the great 
bays and buttresses of Marble Canon. 

The river is still rapid, and we stop to let down 
with lines several times, but make greater progress 
as we run ten miles. We camp on the right bank. 
Here, on a terrace of trap, we discover another 
group of ruins. There was evidently quite a 
village on this rock. Again we find mealing 
stones, and much broken pottery, and up in a 
little natural shelf in the rock, back of the ruins, 
we find a globular basket, that would hold per- 
haps a third of a bushel. It is badly broken, and, 
as I attempt to take it up, it falls to pieces. 
There are many beautiful flint-chips, as if this had 
been the home of an old arrow-maker. 

August 21. "We start early this morning, 
cheered by the prospect of a fine day, and en- 
couraged, also, by the good run made yesterday. 
A quarter of a mile below camp the river 
turns abruptly to the left, and between camp and 
that point is very swift, running down in a long, 
broken chute, and piling up against the foot of 
the cliff, where it turns to the left. We try to 
pull across, so as to go down on the other side, but 
the waters are swift, and it seems impossible for 
us to escape the rock below; but, in pulling across, 
the bow of the boat is turned to the farther shore, 
so that we are swept broadside down, and are pre- 
vented, by the rebounding waters, from striking 
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Masterpieces of Science 

against the wall. There we toss about for a few 
seconds in these billows, and are carried past the 
danger. Below, the river turns again to the 
right, the canon is very narrow, and we see in 
advance but a short distance. The water, too, 
is very swift, and there is no landing-place. 
From around this curve there comes a mad roar, 
and down we are carried, with a dizzying velocity, 
to the head of another rapid. On either side, 
high over our heads, there are overhanging gran- 
ite walls, and the sharp bends cut off our view, so 
that a few minutes will carry us into unknown 
waters. Away we go, on one long winding chute. 
I stand on deck, supporting myself with a strap, 
fastened on either side to the gunwale, and the 
boat glides rapidly, where the water is smooth, or, 
striking a wave, she leaps and bounds like a thing 
of life, and we have a wild, exhilarating ride for 
ten miles, which we make in less than an hour. 
The excitement is so great that we forget the 
danger, until we hear the roar of a great fall be- 
low; then we back on our oars, and are carried 
slowly towards its head, and succeed in landing 
just above, and find that we have to make an- 
other portage. At this we are engaged until 
some time after dinner. 

Just here we run out of the granite ! 

Ten miles in less than half a day, and limestone 
walls below. Good cheer returns; we forget the 
storms, and the gloom, and cloud-covered canons, 
and the black granite, and the raging river, and 
push our boats from shore in great glee. 
150 



The Grand Canon of the Colorado 

Though we are out of the granite, the river is 
still swift, and we wheel about a point again to 
the right, and turn, so as to head back in the 
direction from whidh we come, and see the granite 
again, with its narrow gorge and black crags; but 
we meet with no more great falls or rapids. Still, 
we run cautiously, and stop, from time to time, 
to examine some places which look bad. Yet, 
we make ten miles this afternoon; twenty miles, 
in all, to-day. 

August- 22 We come to rapids again, this 
morning, and are occupied several hours in pass- 
ing them, letting the boats down, from rock to 
rock, with lines, for nearly half a mile, and then 
have to make a long portage. While the men are 
engaged in this, I climb the wall on the northeast, 
to a height of about 2,500 feet, where I can obtain 
a good view of a long stretch of canon below. 
Its course is to the southwest. The walls seem 
to rise very abruptly, for 2,500 or 3,000 feet, and 
then there is a gently sloping terrace, on each 
side, for two or three miles, and again we find 
cliffs, 1,500 or 2,000 feet high. From the brink 
of these the plateau stretches back to the north 
and south, for a long distance. Away down the 
canon, on the right wall, I can see a group of 
mountains, some of which appear to stand on the 
brink of the canon. The effect of the terrace is 
to give the appearance of a narrow, winding val- 
ley, with high walls on either side, and a deep, 
dark, meandering gorge down its middle. It is 
impossible, from this point of view, to determine 
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Masterpieces of Science 

whether we have granite at the bottom or not; 
but, from geological considerations, I conclude 
that we shall have marble walls below. 

After my return to the boats, we run another 
mile and camp for the night. 

We have made but little over seven miles to- 
day, and a part of our flour has been soaked in the 
river again. 

August 2 j. Our way to-day is again through 
marble walls. Now and then we pass, for a 
short distance, through patches of granite, like 
hills thrust up into the limestone. At one of 
these places we have to make another portage, 
and, taking advantage of the delay, I go up a 
little stream to the north, wading it all the way, 
sometimes having to take a plunge in to my neck ; 
in other places being compelled to swim across 
little basins that have been excavated at the foot 
of the falls. Along its course are many cascades 
and springs, gushing out from the rocks on either 
side. Sometimes a cottonwood tree grows over 
the water. I come to one beautiful fall, of more 
than a hundred and fifty feet, and climb around it 
to the right, on the broken rocks. Still going up, 
I find the canon narrowing very much, being but 
fifteen or twenty feet wide; yet the walls rise on 
either side many hundreds of feet, perhaps thou- 
sands ; I can hardly tell. 

In some places the stream has not excavated its 

channel down vertically through the rocks, but 

has cut obliquely, so that one wall overhangs 

the other. In other places it is cut vertically 

152 



The Grand Canon of the Colorado 

above and obliquely below, or obliquely above 
and vertically below, so that it is impossible to see 
out overhead. But I can go no farther. The 
time which I estimated it would take to make the 
portage has almost expired, and I start back on a 
round trot, wading in the creek where I must, and 
plunging through basins, and find the men wait- 
ing for me, and away we go on the river. 

Just after dinner we pass a stream on the right, 
which leaps into the Colorado by a direct fall of 
more than a hundred feet, forming a beautiful 
cascade. There is a bed of very hard rock above, 
thirty or forty feet in thickness, and much softer 
beds below. The hard beds above project many 
yards beyond the softer, which are washed out, 
forming a deep cave behind the fall, and the 
stream pours through a crevice above into a deep 
pool below. Around on the rocks, in the cave- 
like chamber, are set beautiful ferns, with delicate 
fronds and enamelled stalks. The little frond- 
lets have their points turned down, to form spore 
cases. It has very much the appearance of the 
maiden's hair fern, but is much larger. This 
delicate foliage covers the rocks all about the 
fountain, and gives the chamber great beauty. 
But we have little time to spend in admiration, so 
on we go. 

We make fine progress this afternoon, carried 
along by a swift river, and shoot over the rapids, 
finding no serious obstructions. 

The canon walls, for 2,500 or 3,000 feet, are 
very regular, rising almost perpendicularly, but 
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Masterpieces of Science 

here and there set with narrow steps, and oc- 
casionally we can see away above the broad ter- 
race, to distant cliffs. 

We camp to-night in a marble cave, and find, 
on looking at our reckoning, we have run twenty- 
two miles. 

August 24. The canon is wider to-day. The 
walls rise to a vertical height of nearly 3,000 feet. 
In many places the river runs under a cliff, in 
great curves, forming amphitheatres, half-dome 
shaped. 

Though the river is rapid, we meet with no 
serious obstructions, and run twenty miles. It 
is curious how anxious we are to make up our 
reckoning every time we stop, now that our diet 
is confined to plenty of coffee, very little spoiled 
flour, and very few dried apples. It has come to 
be a race for a dinner. Still, we make such fine 
progress, all hands are in good cheer, but not a 
moment of daylight is lost. 

August 2 j. We make twelve miles this morn- 
ing, when we come to monuments of lava, stand- 
ing in the river; low rocks mostly, but some of 
them shafts more than a hundred feet high. Go- 
ing on down, three or four miles, we find them 
increasing in number. Great qttantities of 
cooled lava and many cinder cones are seen on 
either side; and then we come to an abrupt cata- 
ract. Just over the fall, on the right wall, a cin- 
der cone, or extinct volcano, with a well-defined 
crater, stands on the very brink of the canon. 
This, doubtless, is the one we saw two or three 
154 



The Grand Canon of the Colorado ' 

days ago. From this volcano vast floods of lava 
have been poured into the river, and a stream of 
the molten rock has run up the canon, three or 
four miles, and down, we know not how far. 
Just where it poured over the canon wall is the 
fall. The whole north side, as far as we can see, 
is lined with the black basalt, and high up on the 
opposite wall are patches of the same material, 
resting on the benches, and filling old alcoves and 
caves, giving to the wall a spotted appearance. 

The rocks are broken in two, along a line which 
here crosses the river, and the beds, which we 
have seen coming down the canon for the last 
thirty miles, have dropped eight hundred feet, 
on the lower side of the line, forming what ge- 
ologists call a fault. The volcanic cone stands 
directly over the fissure thus formed. On the 
side of the river opposite, mammoth springs 
burst out of this crevice, one or two hun- 
dred . feet above the river, pouring in a stream 
quite equal in volume to the Colorado Chiquito. 

This stream seems to be loaded with carbonate 
•of lime, and the water, evaporating, leaves an in- 
crustation on the rocks ; and this process has been 
continued for a long time, for extensive deposits 
are noticed, in which are basins, with bubbling 
springs. The water is salty. 

We have to make a portage here, which is com- 
pleted in about three hours, and on we go. 

We have no difficulty as we float along, and I 
am able to observe the wonderful phenomena con- 
nected with this flood of lava. The canon was 
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Masterpieces of Science 

doubtless filled to a height of twelve or fifteen 
hundred feet, perhaps by more than one flood. 
This would dam the water back; and in cutting 
through this great lava bed, a new channel has 
been formed, sometimes on one side, sometimes 
on the other. The cooled lava, being of firmer 
texture than the rocks of which the walls are 
composed, remains in some places; in others a 
narrow channel has been cut, leaving a line of 
basalt on either side. It is possible that the lava 
cooled faster on the sides against the walls, and 
that the centre ran out; but of this we can only- 
conjecture. There are other places, where al- 
most the whole of the lava is gone, patches of it 
only being seen where it has caught on the walls. 
As we float down, we can see that it ran out into 
side canons. In some places this basalt has a 
fine, columnar structure, often in concentric 
prisms, and masses of these concentric columns 
have coalesced. In some places, where the flow 
occurred, the canon was probably at about the 
same depth as it is now, for we can see where the 
basalt has rolled out on the sands, and, what 
seems curious to me, the sands are not melted or 
metamorphosed to any appreciable extent. Ir. 
places the bed of the river is of sandstone or lime- 
stone, in other places of lava, showing that it has 
all been cut out again where the sandstones and 
limestones appear; but there is a little yet left 
where the bed is of lava. 

What a conflict of water and fire there must 
have been here ! Just imagine a river of molten 
156 



The Grand Canon of the Colorado 

rock, running down into a river of melted snow. 
What a seething and boiling of the waters ; what 
clouds of steam rolled into the heavens ! 

Thirty-five miles to-day. Hurrah ! 

August 26. The canon walls are steadily be- 
coming higher as we advance. They are still 
bold, and nearly vertical up to the terrace. We 
still see evidence of the eruption discovered yes- 
terday, but the thickness of the basalt is decreas- 
ing, as we go down the stream; yet it has been 
reinforced at points by streams that have come 
from volcanoes standing on the terrace above, 
but which we cannot see from the river below. 

Since we left the Colorado Chiquito, we have 
seen no evidences that the tribe of Indians inhab- 
iting the plateaus on either side ever come down 
to the river; but about eleven o'clock to-day we 
discover an Indian garden, at the foot of the 
wall on the right, just where a little stream, with 
a narrow flood plain, comes down through a side 
canon. Along the valley, the Indians have 
planted corn, using the water which burst out in 
springs at the foot of the cliff for irrigation. The 
corn is looking quite well, but is not sufficiently 
advanced to give us roasting ears; but there are 
some nice green squashes. We carry ten or a 
dozen of these on board our boats, and hurriedly 
leave, not willing to be caught in the robbery, yet 
excusing ourselves by pleading our great want. 
We run down a short distance to where we feel 
certain no Indians can follow; and what a kettle 
of squash sauce we make ! True, we have no 
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Masterpieces of Science 

salt with which to season it, but it makes a fine 
addition to our unleavened bread and coffee. 
Never was fruit so sweet as those stolen squashes. 
After dinner we push on again, making fine time, 
finding many rapids, but none so bad that we can- 
not run them with safety, and when we stop, just 
at dusk, and foot up our reckoning, we find that 
we have run thirty-five miles again. 

What a supper we make; unleavened bread, 
green squash sauce, and strong coffee. We have 
been for a few days on half-rations, but we have 
-no stint of roast squash. 

A few days like this, and we are out of prison. 

August 2j. This morning the river takes a 
more southerly direction. The dip of the rocks 
is to the north, and we are rapidly running into 
lower formations. Unless our course changes, we 
shall very soon run again into the granite. This 
gives us some anxiety. Now and then the river 
turns to the west, and excites hopes that are soon 
destroyed by another turn to the south. About 
nine o'clock we come to the dreaded rock. It is 
with no little misgiving that we see the river 
enter those black, hard walls. At its very en- 
trance we have to make a portage; then we have 
to let down with lines past some ugly rocks. 
Then we run a mile or two farther, and then the 
rapids below can be seen. 

About eleven o'clock we come to a place where 

it seems much worse than any we have yet met in 

all its course. A little creek comes down from 

the left. We land first on the right, and 

158 



The Grand Canon of the Colorado 

clamber up over the granite pinnacles for a mile 
or two, but can see no way by which we can let 
down, and to run it would be sure destruction. 
After dinner we cross to examine it on the left. 
High above the river we can walk along on the 
top of the granite, which is broken off at the edge, 
and set with crags and pinnacles, so that it is 
very difficult to get a view of the river at all. In 
my eagerness to reach a point where I can see the 
roaring fall below, I go too far on the wall, and 
can neither advance nor retreat. I stand with 
one foot on a little projecting rock, and cling 
with my hand fixed in a little crevice. Finding 
I am caught here, suspended four hundred feet 
above the river, into which I should fall if my 
footing fails, I call for help. The men come, and 
pass me a line, but I cannot let go of the rock long- 
enough to take hold of it. Then they bring two 
or three of the largest oars. All this takes time 
which seems very precious to me ; but at last they 
arrive. The blade of one of the oars is pushed 
into a little crevice in the rock beyond .me, in 
such a manner that they can hold me pressed 
againstthe wall. Then another is fixed in 
such a way that I can step on it-, and thus I am 
extricated. 

Still another hour is spent in examining the 
river from this side, but no good view of it is 
obtained, so now we return to the side that was 
first examined, and the afternoon is spent in 
clambering among the crags and pinnacles, and 
carefully scanning the river again. We find that 
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Masterpieces of Science 

the lateral streams have washed boulders into the 
river, so as to form a dam over which the water 
makes a broken fall of eighteen or twenty feet; 
then there is a rapid, beset with rocks, for two or 
three hundred yards, while, on the other side, 
points of the wall project into the river. Then 
there is a second fall below; how great, we cannot 
tell. Then there is a rapid, filled with huge rocks, 
for one or two hundred yards. At the bottom of 
it, from the right wall, a great rock projects quite 
half-way across the river. It has a sloping sur- 
face extending upstream, and the water, coming 
down with all the momentum gained in the falls 
and rapids above, rolls up this inclined plane 
many feet and tumbles over to the left. I decide 
that it is possible to let down over the first fall, 
then run near the right cliff to a point just above 
the second, where we can pull out into a little 
chute, and, having run over that in safety, we 
must pull with all our power across the stream, 
to avoid the great rock below. On my return to 
the boat, I announce to the men that we are to 
run it in the morning. Then we cross the river, 
and go down into camp for the night on some 
rocks, in the mouth of the little side canon. 

After supper Captain Howland asks to have a 
talk with me. We walk up the little creek a 
short distance, and I soon find that his object is 
to remonstrate against my determination to pro- 
ceed. He thinks that we had better abandon the 
river here. Talking with him, I learn that his 
brother, William Dunn, and himself have deter- 
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The Grand Canon of the Colorado 

mined to go no farther in the boats. So we 
return to camp. Nothing is said to the other 
men. 

For the last two days our course has not been 
plotted. I sit down and do this now, for the 
purpose of finding where we are by dead reckon- 
ing. It is a clear night, and I take out the sex- 
tant to make observations for latitude, and find 
that the astronomic determination agrees very 
nearly with that of the plot — quite as closely as 
might be expected, from a meridian observation 
on a planet. In a direct line, we must be about 
forty-five miles from the mouth of the Rio Virgen. 
If we can reach that point, we know that there 
are settlements up that river about twenty miles. 
This forty-five miles, in a direct line, will prob- 
ably be eighty or ninety in the meandering line 
of the river. But then we know that there is 
comparatively open country for many miles 
about the mouth of the Virgen, which is our 
point of destination. 

As soon as I determine all this, I spread my 
plot on the sand, and wake Howland, who is 
sleeping down by the river, and show him where 
I suppose we are, and where several Mormon 
settlements are situated. 

We have another short talk about the morrow, 
and he lies down again; but for me there is no 
sleep. All night long I pace up and down a little 
path, on a few yards of sand beach, along by the 
river. Is it wise to go on ? I go to the boats 
again, to look at our rations. I feel satisfied 
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Masterpieces of Science 

that we can get over the danger immediately 
before us; what there may be below I know not 
From our outlook yesterday, on the cliffs, the 
canon seemed to make another great bend to the 
south, and this, from our experience heretofore, 
means more and higher granite walls. I am not 
sure that we can climb out of the canon here, and, 
when at the top of the wall, I know enough of the 
country to be certain that it is a desert of rock 
and sand, between this and the nearest Mormon 
town, which, on the most direct line, must be 
seventy-five miles away. True, the late rains 
have been favourable to us, should we go out, 
for the probabilities are that we shall find water 
still standing in holes, and, at one time, I almost 
conclude to leave the river. But for years I have 
been contemplating this trip. To leave the ex- 
ploration unfinished, to say that there is a part of 
the canon which I cannot explore, having already 
almost accomplished it, is more than I am willing 
to acknowledge, and I determine to go on. 

I wake my brother and tell him of Howland's 
determination, and he promises to stay with me; 
then I call up Hawkins, the cook, and he makes a 
like promise; then Sumner, and Bradley, and 
Hall, and they all agree to go on. 

August 28. At last daybreak comes, and we 
have breakfast, without a word being said about 
the future. The meal is as solemn as a funeral. 
After breakfast I ask the three men if they still 
think it best to leave us. The elder Howland 
thinks it is, and Dunn agrees with him. The 
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The Grand Canon of the Colorado 

younger Howland tries to persuade them to go- 
on with the party, failing in which, he decides to 
go with his brother. 

Then we cross the river. The small boat is 
very much disabled, and unseaworthy. With 
the loss of hands, consequent on the departure 
of the three men, we shall not be able to 
run all of the boats, so I decide to leave my 
Emma Dean. 

Two rifles and a shotgun are given to the men 
who are going out. I ask them to help them- 
selves to the rations, and take what they think 
to be a fair share. This they refuse to do, saying 
they have no fear but what they can get some- 
thing to eat ; but Billy, the cook, has a pan of bis- 
cuits prepared for dinner, and these he leaves on 
a rock. 

Before starting, we take our barometers, fos- 
sils, the minerals, and some ammunition from the 
boat and leave them on the rocks. "We are going 
over this place as light as possible. The three 
men help us lift our boats over a rock twenty- 
five or thirty feet high, and let them down 
again over the first fall, and now we are all 
ready to start. 

The last thing before leaving, I write a 
letter to my wife, and give it to Howland. Sum- 
ner gives him his watch, directing that it be 
sent to his sister, should he not be heard from 
again. The records of the expedition have been 
kept in duplicate. One set of these is given to 
Howland, and now we are ready. For the last 
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Masterpieces of Science 

time, they entreat us not to go on, and tell us that 
it is madness to set out in this place ; that we can 
never get safely through it; and, further, that the 
river turns again to the south into the granite, 
and a few miles of such rapids and falls will 
exhaust our entire stock of rations, and then it 
will be too late to climb out. Some tears are 
shed; it is a rather solemn parting; each party 
thinks the other is taking the dangerous course. 

My old boat left, I go on board of the Maid of 
the Canon. The three men climb a crag, that 
overhangs the river, to watch us off. The Maid 
of the Canon pushes out. We glide rapidly along 
the foot of the wall, just grazing one great rock, 
then pull out a little into the chute of the second 
fall, and plunge over it. The open compartment is 
filled when we strike the first wave below, but we 
cut through it, and then the men pull with all 
their power toward the left wall, and swing clear 
of the dangerous rock below all right. We are 
scarcely a minute in running it, and find that, 
although it looked bad from above, we have 
passed many places that were worse. 

The other boat follows with more difficulty. 
We land at the first practicable point below and 
fire our guns as a signal to the men above that we 
have come over in safety. Here we remain a 
couple of hours, hoping that they will take the 
smaller boat and follow us. We are behind a 
curve in the canon, and cannot see up to where 
we left them, and so we wait until their corning 
seems hopeless, and push on. 
164 



The Grand Canon of the Colorado 

And now we have a succession of rapids and 
falls until noon, all of which we run in safety. 
Just after dinner we come to another bad place. 
A little stream comes in from the left, and below 
there is a fall, and still below another fall. Above, 
the river tumbles down, over and among the 
rocks, in whirlpools and great waves, and the 
waters are lashed into mad, white foam. We run 
along the left, above this, and soon see that we 
cannot get down on this side, but it seems possible 
to let down on the other. We pull up stream 
again for two or three hundred yards and cross. 
Now there is a bed of basalt on this northern side 
of the canon with a bold escarpment, that seems 
to be a hundred feet high. We can climb it, and 
walk along its summit to a point where we are 
just at the head of the fall. Here the basalt is 

broken down again, so it seems to us, and I 
direct the men to take a line to the top of the 
cliff, and let the boats down along the wall. One 
man remains in the boat, to keep her clear of the 
rocks, and prevent her line from being caught on 
the projecting angles. I climb the cliff, and pass 
along to a point just over the fall, and descend by 
broken rocks, and find that the break of the fall 
is above the break of the wall, so that we cannot 
land; and that still below the river is very bad, 
and that there is no possibility of a portage. 
Without waiting further to examine and deter- 
mine what shall be done, I hasten back to the 
top of the cliff, to stop the boats from coming 
down. When I arrive I find the men have let 
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Masterpieces of Science 

one of them down to the head of the fall. She is in 
swift water, and they are not able to pull her 
back; nor are they able to go on with the line, as 
it is not long enough to reach the higher part of 
the cliff, which is just before them; so they take 
a bight around a crag. I send two men back for 
the other line. The boat is in very swift water, 
and Bradley is standing in the open compart- 
ment, holding out his oar to prevent her from 
striking against the foot of the cliff. Now she 
shoots out into the stream, and up as" far as the 
line will permit, and then, wheeling, drives head- 
long against the rock, then out and back again, 
now straining on the line, now striking against 
the rock. As soon as the second line is brought, 
we pass it down to him; but his attention is all 
taken up with his own situation, and he does not 
see that we are passing the line to him. I stand 
on a projecting rock, waving my hat to gain his 
attention, for my voice is drowned by the roaring 
of the falls. Just at this moment, I see him take 
his knife from its sheath, and step forward to 
cut the line. He has evidently decided that it is 
better to go over with the boat as it is, than to 
wait for her to be broken to pieces. As he leans 
over, the boat sheers again into the stream, the 
stem-post breaks away, and she is loose. With 
perfect composure Bradley seizes the great scull 
oar, places it in the stern rowlock, and pulls with 
all his power (and he is an athlete) to turn the 
bow of the boat downstream, for he wishes to go 
bow down, rather than to drift broadside on. 
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The Grand Canon of the Colorado 

One, two strokes lie makes, and a third just as 
she goes over, and the boat is fairly turned, and 
she goes down almost beyond our sight, though 
we are more than a hundred feet above the river. 
Then she comes up again, on a great wave, and 
down and up, then around behind some great 
rocks, and is lost in the mad, white foam 
below. We stand frozen with fear, for we 
see no boat. Bradley is gone, so it seems. 
But now, away below, we see something com- 
ing' out of the waves. It is evidently a 
boat. A moment more, and we see Brad- 
ley standing on deck, swinging his hat to 
show that he is all right. But he is in a whirl- 
pool. We have the stem post of his boat at- 
tached to the line. How badly she may be dis- 
abled we know not . I direct Sumner and Powell 
to pass along the cliff, and see if they can reach 
him from below. Rhodes, Hall, and myself run 
to the other boat, jump aboard, push out, and 
away we go over the falls. A wave rolls over us, 
and our boat is unmanageable. Another great 
wave strikes us, the boat rolls over, and 
tumbles and tosses, I know not how. All I 
know is that Bradley is picking us up. We soon 
have all right again, and row to the cliff, and 
wait until Sumner and Powell can come. After 
a difficult climb they reach us. We run two or 
three miles farther, and turn again to the north- 
west, continuing until night, when we have run- 
out of the granite once more. 

August 2Q. We start very early this morning. 
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Masterpieces of Science 

The river still continues swift, but we have no 
serious difficulty, and at twelve o'clock emerge 
from the Grand Canon of the Colorado. 

We are in a valley now, and low mountains are 
seen in the distance, coming to the river below. 
We recognize this as the Grand Wash. 

A few years ago a party of Mormons set out 
from St. George, Utah, taking with them a boat, 
and came down to the mouth of the Grand Wash, 
where they divided, a portion of the party cross- 
ing the river to explore the San Francisco Moun- 
tains. Three men — Hamblin, Miller, and Crosby 
— taking the boat, went on down the river to 
Callville, landing a few miles below the mouth of 
the Rio Virgen. We have their manuscript 
journal with us, and so the stream is compara- 
tively well known. 

To-night we camp on the left bank in a mes- 
quit thicket 

The relief from danger and the joy of success 
are great. When he who has been chained by 
wounds to a hospital cot, until his canvas tent 
seems like a dungeon cell, until the groans of 
those who lie about, tortured with probe and 
knife, are piled up, a weight of horror on his ears 
that he cannot throw off, cannot forget, and until 
the stench of festering wounds and anaesthetic 
drugs has filled the air with its loathsome bur- 
then, at last goes into the open field, what a 
world he sees ! How beautiful the sky; how 
bright the sunshine; what "floods of delirious 
music" pour from the throats of birds; how 
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The Grand Canon of the Colorado 

sweet the fragrance of earth and tree, and blos- 
som ! The first hour of convalescent freedom 
seems rich recompense for all — pain, gloom, 
terror. 

Something like this are the feelings we ex- 
perience to-night. Ever before us has been an 
unknown danger, heavier than immediate peril. 
Every waking hour passed in the Grand Canon 
has been one of toil. We have watched with 
deep solicitude the steady disappearance of our 
scant supply of rations, and from time to time 
have seen the river snatch a portion of the little 
left, while we were ahungered. And danger and 
toil were endured in those gloomy depths, where 
ofttimes the clouds hid the sky by day, and but a 
narrow zone of stars could be seen at night. Only 
during the few hours of deep sleep, consequent 
on hard labour, has the roar of the waters been 
hushed. Now the danger is over; now the toil 
has ceased; now the gloom has disappeared; now 
the firmament is bounded only by the horizon; 
and what a vast expanse of constellations can be 
seen ! 

The river rolls by us in silent majesty; the 
quiet of the camp is sweet; our joy is almost 
ecstasy. We sit till long after midnight, talking 
of the Grand Canon, talking of home, but chiefly 
talking of the three men who left us. Are they 
wandering in those depths, unable to find a way 
out ? are they searching over the desert lands 
above for water ? or are they nearing the settle- 
ments ? 

169 



Masterpieces of Science 

August jo. We run two or three short, low 
canons to-day, and on emerging from one, we dis- 
cover a band of Indians in the valley below. 
They see us, and scamper away in most eager 
haste, to hide among the rocks. Although we 
land, and call for them to return, not an Indian 
can be seen. 

Two or three miles farther down, in turning a 
short bend in the river, we come upon another 
camp. So near are we before they can see us that 
I can shout to them, and, being able to speak a 
little of their language, I tell them we are friends; 
but they flee to the rocks, except a man, a woman, 
and two children. We land, and talk, with them. 
They are without lodges, but have built little 
shelters of boughs, under which they wallow in 
the sand. The man is dressed in a hat; the 
woman in a string of beads only. At first they 
are evidently much terrified; but when I talk to 
them in their own language, and tell them we are 
friends, and inquire after people in the Mormon 
towns, they are soon reassured, and beg for tobac- 
co. Of this precious article we have none to spare. 
Sumner looks around in the boat for something 
to give them, and finds a little piece of coloured 
soap, which they receive as a valuable present, 
rather as a thing of beauty than as a useful com- 
modity, however. They are either unwilling or 
unable to tell us anything about the Indians or 
white people, and so we push off, for we must 
lose no time. 

We camp at noon under the right bank. And 
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The Grand Canon of the Colorado 

now, as we push out, we are in great expectancy, 
for we hope every minute to discover the mouth 
of the Rio Virgen. 

Soon one of the men exclaims: " Yonder's an 
Indian in the river. ' ' Looking for a few minutes, 
we certainly do see two or three persons. The 
men bend to their oars, and pull toward them. 
Approaching, we see that there are three white 
men and an Indian hauling a seine, and then we 
discover that it is just at the mouth of the long- 
sought river. 

As we come near, the men seem far less sur- 
prised to see us than we do to see them. They 
evidently know who we are, and, on talking with 
them, they tell us that we have been reported 
lost long ago, and that some weeks before, a mes- 
senger had been sent from Salt Lake City, with 
instructions for them to watch for any fragments 
or relics of our party that might drift down the 
stream. 

Our new-found friends, Mr. Asa and his two 
sons, tell us that they are pioneers of a town that 
is to be built on the bank. 

Eighteen or twenty miles up the valley of the 
Rio Virgen there are two Mormon towns, St. 
Joseph and St. Thomas. To-night we despatch 
an Indian to the last mentioned place, to bring 
any letters that may be there for us. 

Our arrival here is very opportune. When we 
look over our store of supplies, we find about 
ten pounds of flour, fifteen pounds of dried ap- 
ples, but seventy or eighty pounds of coffee. 
171 



SEPl 



8 1902 



SEP 18 1902 



21777 SEP 181902 

icon- del to cat div, 

$£P, Ul 1902 



